Frans Wouters (1612–1659) was a Flemish Baroque painter who translated the monumental

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style of Peter Paul Rubens into the small context of cabinet paintings. He was a court painter to the Roman Emperor and the Prince of Wales and was active as an ambassador and art dealer.

Life

Frans Wouters was born in Lier, present-day Belgium. He was first apprenticed to

Pieter van Avont Pieter van Avont or Peter van Avont, (1600–1652) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and printmaker known for his religious scenes and cabinet paintings often including nude children and putti. Van Avont was a frequent collaborator with man ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1629 but broke his contract to move to the workshop of

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

in 1634. He became a master in the

Guild of St. 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 Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...

the following year.Frans Wouters
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History He participated, under the direction of Rubens, in the decoration of the city of Antwerp on the occasion of the Joyous Entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in 1635. Frans Wouters - Allegory of sight

He spent the 1630s as court painter to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. He was sent as an ambassador of Ferdinand II to England in 1637.Franciscus Wouters biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature The following year, he became the painter of the Prince of Wales, the future

Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of ...

. In England, Wouters would certainly have had the opportunity to meet his compatriot

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

, who was at that time the court painter of Charles I of England. Even after his return to Antwerp in 1641 he remained in contact with Charles II during the period of the English Civil War and the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

. He was described in 1658 as Charles’s 'ayuda de cámera' (chamberlain).Karel Frans Wouters (1612-1660)
at the Royal Collection In Antwerp he collaborated again with his former master Pieter van Avont mainly adding landscapes to van Avont's compositions. He became involved in the art market. In this capacity he assisted in the valuation of the paintings in Rubens' estate. His marriage to Maria Doncker, daughter of the treasurer of Antwerp, in 1644 provided him with a substantial fortune. In 1648, he became dean of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke. He was involved in the sale of the art collection of

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, 28 August 1592 – 23 August 1628), was an English courtier, statesman, and patron of the arts. He was a favourite and possibly also a lover of King James I of England. Buckingham remained at the ...

by the English Parliamentary Commissioners in 1648. At around this time Wouters began to work for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the then Governor of the Southern Netherlands and an avid art patron and collector.Hans Vlieghe. "Wouters, Frans."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 15 April 2014

Work

Wouters' style and subject matter reflect the taste of his international aristocratic clients who preferred small paintings, decorative landscapes and mythological stories. Other themes appreciated by these patrons were scenes dealing with alchemy, the four elements, Allegories of the Five Senses as well as iconographical themes that allowed for different levels of interpretation based on a number of references and allusions, or devices such as the 'picture within a picture'. An example is the ''Allegory of sight'' (Auctioned at Dorotheum on 19 April 2016 in Vienna, lot 29) where the sense of sight is represented primarily by the woman regarding herself in the mirror. This act also alludes to another theme, that of vanity, which is further evoked by the still life painting on the right. The room with its variety of precious objects, scientific instruments, paintings and sculptures has taken the semblance of a ' cabinet of curiosities. The multitude of objects refers to the various forms of visual perception and man's desire to take possession of the things he sees by understanding them. The world map in the foreground further alludes to man's ability to observe and understand distant worlds. In contrast, the monkey in the foreground of the painting is only capable of achieving the lowest, most superficial level of seeing, the staring at things without genuine understanding. Even the use of two pairs of spectacles does not help the poor animal.Frans Wouters, ''An Allegory of Sight''
at Dorotheum His style bore initially a resemblance to the late

Mannerism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

of Joos de Momper and was later influenced by Rubens and in particular Rubens' landscape paintings. After entering the service of Archduke Leopold William, Wouters' work demonstrated the increased influence of Anthony van Dyck and the human figures in his paintings became elongated and emotionally expressive. He painted biblical scenes and mythological landscapes in this style.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wouters, Frans 1659 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Flemish landscape painters People from Lier, Belgium 1612 births Painters from Antwerp Court painters