Charles Emmanuel Biset - Portrait of a family in an interior

Charles Emmanuel Biset or Karel Emmanuel Biset (1633 – between 28 September 1693 and 1713) was a Flemish painter who had a peripatetic career working in various cities and countries including his hometown Mechelen, Paris,

Annonay Annonay (; ) is a Communes of France, commune and largest city in the north of the Ardèche department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It is the most populous commune in the Ardèche department although it is not the ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

and

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

. He worked in many genres including

genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

of interiors with

merry companies Merry company is the term in art history for a painting, usually from the 17th century, showing a small group of people enjoying themselves, usually seated with drinks, and often music-making. These scenes are a very common type of genre painting ...

and gallery paintings,

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and B ...

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

and

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

ure.Charles Emmanuel Biset
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Life

Charles Emmanuel Biset was born on 26 December 1633 in Mechelen as Karel Emmanuel Biset. He was the son of the decorative painter Joris Biset who had trained under Michiel Coxie III, a grandson of the great

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

painter

Michiel Coxie Michiel Coxie the Elder, Michiel Coxcie the Elder or Michiel van Coxcie, Latinised name ''Coxius''Michiel Coxie (I) ...

. Charles Emmanuel Biset likely trained under his father. Charles Emmanuel Biset - Portrait of a Musician

He worked in Mechelen from about 1640 until the early or mid-1650s. He was subsequently active in Paris where he is presumed to have worked for the court. Thereafter he is recorded for a while in Brussels before moving to Antwerp. Here he was active from 1661 to 1687. He became a master in Antwerp's

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was iden ...

in 1662 and was its dean in 1674. He was also appointed a director of the Academy of Antwerp.Ad. Siret, ''BISET, Charles-Emmanuel''
in: Biographie nationale de Belgique, Volume 2, pp. 439–440 He married in 1662 with the painter Maria van Uden who was the daughter of the landscape painter

Lucas van Uden Lucas van Uden (18 October 1595 – 4 November 1672) was a leading Flemish Landscape art, landscape painter, draughtsman and engraver, who lived and worked in Antwerp. He was a leading landscape painter who collaborated with various local fi ...

. After her death in 1665, he began a relationship with her sister Anna. In 1670 he married Anna Cleymans. Their children were the painters Jan Andreas (also called Jan Baptist) and Jan Karel Biset. He enjoyed the patronage of

Juan Domingo de Zuñiga y Fonseca Juan Domingo Méndez de Haro y Fernández de Córdoba (Madrid, 25 November 1640 – Madrid, 2 February 1716) was a Spanish military and political figure. He was the son of Don Luis de Haro, Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio, Valladol ...

, Count of Monterrey, and later the

Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands The governor () or governor-general () of the Habsburg Netherlands was a representative appointed by the Holy Roman emperor (1504-1556), the king of Spain (1556-1598, 1621-1706), and the archduke of Austria (1716-1794), to administer the Burgund ...

for whom he may have worked on a quasi-exclusive basis for a while. In 1687 he is recorded in Breda. It is possible he stayed there for the rest of his life while visiting Antwerp occasionally. The last record of his life dates to 28 September 1693 when he was in Antwerp. The place and date of his death are not clear but he is believed to have died between 28 September 1693 and 1713. He was the master of his nephew Jan Anthonie Coxie, who was the son of his sister Joanna and fellow Mechelen painter Jan Coxie. Biset was highly regarded as an artist in his time as is attested by the fact that both the early Flemish biographer

Cornelis de Bie Cornelis de Bie (10 February 1627 – ) was a Flemish '' rederijker'', poet, jurist and minor politician from Lier. He is the author of about 64 works, mostly comedies. He is known internationally today for his biographical sketches of Flemish ...

and the Dutch biographer

Jacob Campo Weyerman Jacob Campo Weyerman (9 August 1677 – 9 March 1747) was a painter and writer during the period known as the Dutch Enlightenment. His work encompassed flower and fruit still life paintings, satirical magazines, plays, and biographies of painter ...

included him in their artist biographies.

Work

General

Biset was a very versatile artist and the range of his work is very diverse: he painted genre scenes with merry companies, gallery paintings, portraits,

s and

s. Because of this diversity and the specific genres and themes he worked in, it is believed he may have received some training from

Gonzales Coques Gonzales Coques (between 1614 and 1618 – 18 April 1684) was a Flemish painter of portraits and history paintings.Veronique van Passel, "Coques ocks; Cox Gonzales onsael; Gonsalo, ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford University Press, A Family Seated at a Table in an Elegant Garden Exterior'' (Sotheby's, 6 December 2006 in New York, lot 7), which was originally regarded as a collaboration between Gonzales Coques and some specialist artists such as Peeter Gijsels and

Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg or Willem Schubart van Ehrenberg (also: Wilhem Schubert von Ehrenberg or Wilhem Schubert van Ehrenberg (Antwerp, 1630 or 1637– Antwerp, c. 1676) was a Flemish painter mainly active in Antwerp who specialized in a ...

but is regarded by the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

specialists as entirely by Biset's hand. As was the custom in Antwerp in the 17th century Biset regularly collaborated with other painters who were specialists in a particular genre. Collaborations with the landscape painters

Philips Augustijn Immenraet Philips Augustijn Immenraet (21 February 1627 – 25 September 1679) was a Flemish landscape art, landscape painter and engraver. While staying largely within the traditional scheme of the Flemish Baroque landscape, Immenraet introduced a n ...

and Cornelis Huysmans and the architecture painter

are recorded.

Portraits

Biset painted individual as well as family and group portraits, including merry companies. The Hermitage collection holds a beautiful ''Portrait of a Musician''. It depicts a musician standing next to a column with some sheet music and a

theorbo The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck that houses the second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box with a flat top, typically with one or three sound holes decorated with rose ...

and

viola da gamba The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

resting against the column. The figure dressed in black is set off against the velvet curtain behind him. A stool placed next to the musician indicates that he has just finished or is about to commence a musical performance. Charles Emmanuel Biset - A Family Seated at a Table in an Elegant Garden Exterior

Charles Emmanuel Biset - A Family Seated at a Table in an Elegant Garden Exterior

The headmen of the Antwerp

schutterij Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...

De Oude Voetboog are known to have ordered a group portrait from Biset. It is likely that this work is the large composition referred to as ''The Legend of William Tell shown to the Antwerp Schutterij of St Sebastian''. This work, which is now in the

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (, ; , ) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the ...

, was made for the hall of the Antwerp schutterij pursuant to a contract made before a notary on 28 April 1672. The work is a collaboration with

and

. The architecture is painted by Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg and the landscape by Philips Augustijn Immenraet and the rest by Charles Emmanuel Biset. The composition uses the tale of

William Tell William Tell (, ; ; ; ) is a legendary folk hero of Switzerland. He is known for shooting an apple off his son's head. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, ...

to create a group portrait of the leading members of the schutterij. The '' Portrait of a family in an interior'' (Sold at Christie's on 19 April 2007 in New York, lot 31) was originally attributed to Gerard Pietersz van Zijl but is now attributed to Biset. This composition follows the model of the merry companies with its informal setting which includes children and musicians. A less informal rendering of the same subject is in the

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes The Fine Arts Museum of Nantes (French: Musée d'Arts de Nantes), along with 14 other provincial museums, was created, by consular decree on 14 Fructidor in year IX (31 August 1801). Today the museum is one of the largest museums in the region. ...

Genre scenes

Genre subjects involving indoor scenes of playing persons were quite popular in Flemish and Dutch painting in the 17th century and in particular among the so-called Caravaggists. Biset painted similar genre scenes an example of which is his composition the '' Tric-trac players'' ( Statens Museum for Kunst). Charles Emmanuel Biset - Trictrac players

Charles Emmanuel Biset - Trictrac players

The composition shows an interior with two standing men playing tric-trac and three onlookers. One of the onlookers is engaged in a lively exchange with a maid who is handing him a glass of wine. A young male servant is pouring drinks for the company at a table on which also food is placed including oysters, a few of which have fallen on the floor. The overall setting seems to point to a company that is actively enjoying itself but may be on the verge of losing control.

Gallery paintings

Biset worked also in the genre of the 'gallery paintings'. The 'gallery paintings' genre is native to Antwerp where

Frans Francken the Younger Frans Francken the Younger (1581, Antwerp – 6 May 1642, Antwerp) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish painter and the best-known and most prolific member of the large Francken family of artists.

and

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painting, Flemish painter and Draughtsmanship, draughtsman. He was the younger son of the eminent Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Flemish ...

were the first artists to create paintings of art and curiosity collections in the 1620s.Susan Merriam, ''Seventeenth Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012 Gallery paintings depict large rooms in which many paintings and other precious items are displayed in elegant surroundings. The earliest works in this genre depicted art objects together with other items such as scientific instruments or peculiar natural specimens. The genre became immediately quite popular and was followed by other artists such as

Jan Brueghel the Younger Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Younger ( , ; ; 13 September 1601 – 1 September 1678) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, both prominent painters who ...

, Cornelis de Baellieur,

Hans Jordaens Hans Jordaens the Elder (1555–1630), was a Flemish Baroque painter whose religious works are often confused with that of other painters with the same name. Biography He was born in Antwerp, but after the siege of Antwerp, his family moved to ...

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist ...

, Gillis van Tilborch and

Hieronymus Janssens Hieronymus Janssens or Jeroom Janssens (nicknamed ''Den danser'') (1624, Antwerp – 1693, Antwerp) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish genre art, genre painter known for his compositions depicting elegant companies engaging in dance, music or pl ...

. The art galleries depicted were either real galleries or imaginary galleries, sometimes with allegorical figures.Marr, Alexander (2010) 'The Flemish 'Pictures of Collections' Genre: An Overview', Intellectual History Review, 20: 1, 5–25 Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg - Interior of an Imaginary Picture Gallery

Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg - Interior of an Imaginary Picture Gallery

An example of Biset's work in this genre is the '' Interior of an Imaginary Picture Gallery'' (

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pin ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) dated to 1666. This composition falls into the category of allegorical picture galleries, which can be considered a sub-category of the imaginary art gallery type. This composition depicts a large imaginary gallery in which are present a number of persons admiring and scrutinizing artworks and, on the right hand side, figures representing gods and allegorical figures. Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg painted the architecture as well as the ceiling (which is made up of copies of Rubens' works for the

Carolus Borromeuskerk St. Charles Borromeo Church () is a Roman Catholic church in central Antwerp, Belgium, located on the Hendrik Conscienceplein. It was built in 1615–1621 as the Jesuit church of Antwerp, which was closed in 1773. It was rededicated in 1779 to Sai ...

in Antwerp) (later destroyed in a fire). The figures are believed to be by Charles Emmanuel Biset. The painting is a collaboration with each of the individual painters whose work is depicted in the painting and have signed their own work:

Theodoor Boeyermans Theodoor Boeyermans, Theodor Boeyermans or Theodor Boeijermans (10 November 1620 – January 1678) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Antwerp who painted Baroque history paintings and group portraits informed by the tradition of Peter ...

(Daughters of Cecrops and Erychtonius),

Pieter Boel Pieter Boel or Peeter Boel (baptized on 10 October 1622 – 3 September 1674) was a Flemish painter, printmaker and tapestry designer. He specialised in lavish still lifes and animal paintings. He moved to Paris, where he worked in the gobelin f ...

(Animal Piece),

Jan Cossiers Jan Cossiers (Antwerp, 15 July 1600 – Antwerp, 4 July 1671) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. Cossiers' earliest works were Caravaggesque genre works depicting low life scenes. Later in his career he painted mostly history and reli ...

(Diana and Actaeon),

Cornelis de Heem Cornelis is a Dutch form of the male given name Cornelius. Some common shortened versions of Cornelis in Dutch are Cees, Cor, Corné, Corneel, Crelis, Kees, Neel and Nelis. Cornelis (Kees) and Johannes (Jan) used to be the most common given na ...

(Fruit Still Life),

Robert van den Hoecke Robert van den Hoecke (30 November 1622 in Antwerp – 1668 in Bergues, Bergues-Saint-Winoc) was a Flemish painter, engraver and architect. He is principally known for his panoramic battle scenes as well as his landscape paintings. A single sti ...

(Winter Landscape),

(Italianate Landscape),

Jacob Jordaens Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678Jacques Jordaens
in the Netherlands Institute for Ar ...

(Gyges and Kandaules and Allegory of Painting),

Pieter Thijs Pieter Thijs, Peter Thijs or Pieter Thys (1624 in Antwerp – 1677 in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter of portraits as well as religious and history paintings. He was a very successful artist who worked for the courts in Brussels and The Hague as ...

(Adoration of the Shepherds),

(Landscape) and the monogrammists missed PB (Fish Still Life) and PVI or PVH (Satyr and Nymph). This type of painting can be regarded as a carefully crafted advertisement of the present talent and past legacy of the Antwerp school of painting.Nadia Sera Baadj, ''Monstrous creatures and diverse strange things": The Curious Art of Jan van Kessel the Elder (16261679)'', A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History of Art) in The University of Michigan, 2012

Still lifes

A number of still lifes with books are attributed to Biset. These still lifes stand in a tradition of

vanitas ''Vanitas'' is a genre of symbolizing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, and thus the vanity of ambition and all worldly desires. The paintings involved still life imagery of transitory i ...

still lifes with books that was popular in Flemish and Dutch still life painting in the 17th century. An example is the ''Still life with books and a skull'' (Sold at Alain Truong, 18 December 2008 in Paris). The composition depicts a table on which rest a number of writing implements, some sealed letters and old books. On top of one book which is opened and appears to be handwritten rests a human skull. The message of the work appears to be that human endeavours as expressed in personal writings are futile as death is the ultimate outcome.

Book illustrations

Biset provided some designs for illustrations for a number of publications in Antwerp. This includes the book on mushrooms by the priest Franciscus van Sterbeeck entitled ''Theatrum fungorum oft het toneel der campernoelien ... vergaedert ende beschreven door Franciscus van Sterbeeck'', which was published by Joseph Jacobs in Antwerp in 1675 and by the same author and publisher the ''Citricultura oft Regeringhe der uythemsche boomen te weten oranien, citroenen, limoenen, granaten, laurieren en andere'' on the cultivation of non-native trees, published in 1682 in Antwerp.''Citricultura oft Regeringhe der uythemsche boomen te weten oranien, citroenen, limoenen, granaten, laurieren en andere''
at Flandrica.be

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Biset, Charles Emmanuel Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Flemish genre painters Flemish still life painters Painters from Antwerp Painters from Mechelen Academic staff of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) 1633 births 1690s deaths