November 11, 2011 <Back to Index>
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Frans Snyders (1579 – 1657), or Snijders, was a Flemish painter of animals and still life. Snyders was born and died at Antwerp. He is recorded as a student of Pieter Brueghel the Younger in 1593, and subsequently received instruction from Hendrick van Balen, the first master of Van Dyck. He was a friend of Van Dyck who painted Snyders and his wife more than once. He became a master of the Antwerp painters guild in 1602. He visited Italy in 1608-9, visiting Rome, and working for Cardinal Borromeo in Milan. In 1611 he married Margaretha, the sister of Cornelis de Vos and Paul de Vos (another animal painter), in Antwerp. Jan Fyt was a student, and then assistant of his from 1629. Snyders
initially devoted himself to painting flowers, fruit and subjects of
still life, but later turned to painting animals, and executed with the
greatest skill and spirit hunting pieces and combats of wild animals.
He was one of the earliest specialist animaliers. His
composition is rich and varied, his drawing correct and vigorous, his
touch bold and thoroughly expressive of the different textures of furs
and skins. His excellence in this department excited the admiration of Rubens,
who frequently employed him to paint animals, fruit and still life in
his own pictures, and he assisted Jacob Jordaens, Thomas
Willeboirts Bosschaert and
other artists in a similar manner. In
the lion and boar hunts which bear the name of Snyders the hand of Rubens sometimes appears. He was
one of the executors of Rubens's will. He was appointed principal painter to the Archduke
Albert of Austria, governor
of the Low
Countries, for whom he
executed some of his finest works. One of these, a Stag-Hunt was presented to Philip
III of Spain, who together
with his successor Philip
IV of Spain, commissioned the
artist to paint several subjects of the chase, which are still
preserved in
Spain. He also worked for Archduke
Leopold Wilhelm of Austria,
when he became Governor. |