Lodewijk van SchoorLouis van Schoor
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 ...

(c. 1645,

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 ...

(?) – buried 7 September 1702, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of tapestries. Van Schoor was one of the major figures of Flemish tapestry design in the late 17th and early 18th century, together with

Victor Honoré Janssens Victor Honorius Janssens or Victor Honoré Janssens (or Jansens) (11 June 165814 August 1736) was a Flemish painter of religious and mythological works and a tapestry designer. He spent a substantial period of his career abroad and worked in Germ ...

and

Jan van Orley Jan van Orley or Jan van Orley II (4 January 1665, in Brussels – 22 February 1735, in Brussels) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, printmaker and designer of tapestries. Van Orley was one of the major figures of Flemish tapestry design in the ...

.''Het Vlaamse wandtapijt van de 15de tot de 18de eeuw'', Lannoo Uitgeverij, 1999, p. 306

Life

Very little is known about the life and training of Lodewijk van Schoor. His origins likely lie in Brussels since he needed to get special dispensation from the Antwerp magistrate when he established himself in Antwerp in April 1696.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 1167, 1173-1179 He was registered as a master in the Brussels

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 1678. He is firmly recorded in Antwerp where he registered as a master in the local

in the year 1695–1696. Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde
Volume 2, Antwerp, 1864, p. 581, on

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He was in Antwerp a master of Jacques Ignatius de Roore. He died in Antwerp where he was buried in the St James Church on 7 September 1702.

Work

Although Lodewijk van Schoor was registered as a painter when he registered at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, he is now principally known as a designer for the tapestry workshops in Brussels and no paintings have been confidently attributed to him. His signature 'L. van Schoor inv. et pinx.' was woven in various series of tapestries produced at the Brussels tapestry workshops. He may have painted altarpieces as may be deduced from a drawing preserved at 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 ...

signed by van Schoor and the Brussels sculptor Jan Baptiste de Vree, which is a design for an altarpiece of Saint Barbara. A '' Landscape with Tree'' (

Usher Gallery The Usher Gallery is an art museum in Lincoln, England. The gallery displays a collection of artworks by painters such as J. M. W. Turner and L. S. Lowry. Established in 1927, it is run as part of Lincoln Museum. History James Ward Usher wa ...

) has been attributed to Lodewijk van Schoor. However, this is likely by another Lodewijk van Schoor or other van Schoor as his lifetime dates (1666–1726) do not correspond to the artist discussed in this article. Moreover, as the landscapes in the tapestry workshops designed by Lodewijk van Schoor were usually drawn by specialist landscape painters while he was typically responsible for the staffage, it is less likely he practised as a landscape painter.Tapestry: Victoria (from the series "The Four Parts of the World, and other subjects)"
at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

The presence of tapestry designs by French artists Charles Poerson and

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

in Antwerp and Brussels is documented in 1663 and 1673. These designs were used by the tapestry workshops in Brussels and Antwerp as models. The French classicising style of these models influenced artists like Lodewijk van Schoor and Lambert de Hondt the Younger to adopt a more lighthearted rendering of mythological subjects than was current in the Flemish Baroque canon. Their mythological scenes looked more like elegant genre scenes with figures placed in rich landscapes than the violent and complex compositions of Rubens and his entourage. This elegant style was important for the survival of the tapestry industry in Brussels, Antwerp and Oudenaarde, which had to contend with stiff competition of the French state-run Gobelins Manufactory.Thomas P. Campbell, Pascal-François Bertrand, Jeri Bapasola, 'Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor', Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 Jan 2007, pp. 273, 487, 495, 504 Van Schoor designed various tapestry series dealing with allegorical subjects, which were intended to serve as a fairly neutral decoration. He made series of the ''Seasons'', ''Months'' (2 months per tapestry), the ''Four Elements'' and the ''Four Continents''. Before 1700 van Schoor designed various sets of tapestries including ''Verdures with Small Figures Depicting the Story of Dido and Aeneas'', the ''Story of Narcissus and Echo'', a set of ''Hunts'' and the ''Story of Jacob''.Koenraad Brosens, ''A contextual study of Brussels tapestry, 1670-1770: the dye works and tapestry workshop of Urbanus Leyniers (1674-1747)'', Paleis der Academiën, 2004, P. 93 His designs of the ''Four Continents'' inspired a series on the similar theme designed by the Italian artist

Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani (1660–1731) was an Italian painter of the Baroque era. A native of Florence, he was, according to Lanzi, a pupil of Antonio Giusti, but became a follower of the style of Carlo Cignani.Pieter Spierinckx Pieter Spierincks or Pieter Nicolaes Spierinckx (30 August 1635, Antwerp – 30 August 1711, Antwerp or England) was a Flemish painter and designer of tapestries. He was an important representative of the Italianizing movement in Flemish landsca ...

, Augustin Coppens and

Lucas Achtschellinck Lucas Achtschellinck (baptized 16 January 1626 – buried 12 May 1699) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish landscape painter.Flemish Baroque painters Flemish tapestry artists Painters from Brussels Painters from Antwerp 1702 deaths