![Portrait of Bonaventura Peeters the Elder](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Portrait_of_Bonaventura_Peeters_the_Elder.jpg)
Bonaventura Peeters (I) or Bonaventura Peeters the Elder (23 July 1614 – 25 July 1652) was a Flemish
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, draughtsman and etcher. He became one of the leading
marine art
Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main Sea in culture, inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the seaâ ...
ists in the Low Countries in the first half of the 17th century with his depictions of marine battles, storms at sea, shipwrecks and views of ships in rivers and harbours.
[Hans Vlieghe (1998). ]
Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585–1700
'. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. [Bonaventura Peeters (I)]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
Life
Peeters was born in
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, as the son of Cornelis Peeters and Catharina van Eelen.
[F. J. Van den Branden, 'Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool', 2 vols (Antwerp, 1883), pp. 1046–1050 ] He was baptised in the church of St. Walpurgis in Antwerp on 23 July 1614.
[Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, ''Shipping in choppy Seas off Willemstad'']
at Johnny van Haeften
John Henry Van Haeften (born 1952) is a British art dealer, who specialises in 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings. He has been a fanatical stamp collector from a young age, specialising in the stamps of Malta, and cred ...
He was a brother of the seascape painters
Jan the Elder,
Gillis the Elder and
Catharina Peeters
Catharina Peeters (1615–1676) was the sister of Bonaventuur Peeters, Jan Peeters I, and Gillis Peeters. They were all Flemish Baroque painters noted for painting seascapes.
Biography
Few details of her life are known. According to the RKD, ...
.
Nothing is known about his early training although it is possible that
Andries van Eertvelt
Andries van Eertvelt (1590 – 1652), was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver who was one of the first Flemish artists to specialize in marine art. Several of his pupils also became prominent marine artists.[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 ide ...]
in 1634.
[ On 5 July 1638 he received a commission of the pensionary of Antwerp to produce maps of the Siege of Kallo and Verrebroek which had occurred only one month earlier. He was able to deliver the maps half a month later. This earned him a subsequent commission from the pensionary for a large painting of the Siege of Kallo, which he completed in collaboration with his brother Gillis.][ He became one of the few marine specialists active in the Southern Netherlands during the mid-17th century.][
Initially he shared a studio in Antwerp with his older brother Gillis. However, he moved in 1641 to ]Hoboken (Antwerp)
Hoboken () is a southern district of the arrondissement and city of Antwerp, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located at the Scheldt river. The name of the district has its origins in Middle Dutch.
Name
The name Hoboken is derived from ...
where he lived in a spacious residence and worked in a studio with his pupils Catharina and Jan Peeters (I).[Margarita Russell. "Peeters, Bonaventura, I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 18 October 2014] He was the teacher of his siblings Catharina and Jan Peeters (I).[ The son of his brother Gillis, referred to as Bonaventura Peeters the Younger (1648–1702) became a marine and landscape artist.
Peeters never married and died in Hoboken, aged 38 after suffering from ill health the last years of his life.][About Bonaventura Peeters I]
at Jean Moust
Work
Bonaventura's marine paintings comprise the whole range of battle scenes, storms, shipwrecks, views of ships in rivers, coastal waters and harbours, night scenes etc. His earliest marine paintings are panoramic views. His intimate and accurate knowledge of ships may hint at an early life spent at sea. He paid particular attention to the detailed depiction of clouds and waves.[
]
His earlier works show a similarity to the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...
. Later paintings reflect the stronger colours of Italianate classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...
. This shift follows the general change in artistic style at the time.[ Dramatic shipwrecks with dark billowy clouds form a significant part of his oeuvre, as do serene ports and "]portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
s" of ships.[
Many of Peeters' paintings depict actual locations along the ]North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
and the river Scheldt
The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corr ...
and these subjects form the bulk of his artistic production. He may have even travelled along the coast of Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
as is shown by his views of the port of Archangel
Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...
in Northern Russia one of which offers a scene of reindeers or elks pulling sledges. His other views of Scandinavian ports and scenes support the view that he may have travelled there.[ Bonaventura Peeters the Elder repeatedly returned to the portrayal of seaports with shipping in the foreground. Peeters the Elder developed something of a speciality in the portrayal of seaports with shipping in the foreground. His first such view dates to 1634, the year in which he became a master in the Antwerp guild. It depicts ''The 'Hercules' and 'Eenhorn' off the port of Hoorn'' (1634, ]National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...
, London). Peeters' oeuvre includes a number of smaller examples of this type, including three views of Willemstad, taken from different angles, and a view of Brouwershaven, in Rotterdam.[
His many views of far-away ]Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
and Middle Eastern
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
ports reflect a growing taste for the exotic and are probably completely imaginary or derived from prints, including those by his younger brother Jan who had travelled in Southern Europe.[ This tradition developed simultaneously in ]Flemish Baroque painting
Flemish Baroque painting refers to the art produced in the Southern Netherlands during Spanish control in the 16th and 17th centuries. The period roughly begins when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain regions to the south with ...
and in Dutch Golden Age painting
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
The new Dutch Republ ...
, with many artists, including Peeters, working in both Antwerp and in the Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
. For his views of Brazil Bonaventura may have relied on descriptions or depictions by his brother Gillis, who had travelled to South America.[
Bonaventura Peeters is known also for his drawings and engravings with maritime subjects. One of them entitled ''Ships in a storm'' (]Plantin-Moretus Museum
The Plantin-Moretus Museum ( nl, Plantin-Moretusmuseum) is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th-century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establ ...
in Antwerp) has a poem by him on its back in which he compares the dangers at sea with the dangers that man has to face over a lifetime.[ His drawings, as well as those of his family members Jan Peeters I and Bonaventura Peeters II, were used in the preparation of the Blaeu's Atlas Maior of the whole world (Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem).Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem]
at Brill
Bonaventura collaborated with other family members and artists in Antwerp. For instance, he collaborated with his brother Gillis on a painting of the ''Battle of Kallo
The Battle of Kallo was a major field battle fought from 20 to 21 June 1638 in and around the forts of Kallo and Verrebroek, located on the left bank of the Scheldt river, near Antwerp, during the second phase of the Eighty Years' War. Following ...
''. As he was a gifted staffage
In painting, staffage () are the human and animal figures depicted in a scene, especially a landscape, that are not the primary subject matter of the work. Typically they are small, and there to add an indication of scale and add interest.
Before ...
painter he was asked by other painters to paint the figures in their compositions. His collaboration with father and son Pieter Neeffs the Elder and the Younger, painters of church interiors, is documented in the signed examples in the National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in London and the Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...
in Vienna.[
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peeters, Bonaventura (I)
Flemish Baroque painters
Flemish marine artists
Artists from Antwerp
1614 births
1652 deaths