Gillis van Tilborgh or Gillis van Tilborch (''c''. 1625 – ''c''. 1678) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

painter who worked in various genres including

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, 'low-life' and elegant

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

s and paintings of picture galleries. He became the keeper of the picture collection of the governor of the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last House of Valois-Burgundy, Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary of Burgu ...

and travelled in England where he painted group portraits.L. J. Wassink. ''Tilborgh, Gillis van. '' Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web 14 March 2017Gillis van Tilborgh
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

Gillis van Tilborgh was likely born in Brussels. He is believed to have studied first under his father Gillis van Tilborgh the Elder and then with

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 arti ...

. He became 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 ide ...

in 1654. He was the dean of the Guild in 1663. Gillis van Tilborch - The Drinker

He was appointed in 1666 as the keeper of the painting collection of the court and castle of

Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...

, the residence of the governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.Pierre Bautier, ''Gilles van Tilborch'' in: Biographie Nationale, Volume 25, 255-259 His presumed master David Teniers the Younger had previously held the same position for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, the art loving governor of the

. Van Tilborgh is known to have operated a sizable workshop in Brussels but none of his pupils or assistants have been identified. At around 1670 he travelled to England as is documented by a

painting 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 ...

depicting

Tichborne Tichborne is a village and civil parish east of Winchester in Hampshire, England. History In archaeology in the south of the parish within the South Downs National Park is a bell barrow, bowl barrow and regular aggregate field system immediat ...

House and the Tichborne family giving alms (the so-called

Tichborne Dole The Tichborne Dole is a traditional English festival of charity which is held in the village of Tichborne, Hampshire, during the Feast of the Annunciation. The festival is centered on the handing out of donations of flour, which have been blessed ...

). The date and place of his death are not known but it was likely c. 1678 in Brussels.

Work

General

Gillis van Tilborgh - Family Portrait - WGA22403

Gillis van Tilborgh's works are dated from 1650 to 1671. He usually signed with the monogram 'TB'. The range of his subject matter is as diverse as that of his presumed master David Teniers the Younger and encompasses portraits, group portraits, tavern scenes, village feasts, merry companies, picture galleries and guardroom scenes. He was known for his harmonious palette, exact drawing and compositional skills.

Genre scenes

In his tavern scenes he shows himself to be a close follower of

Adriaen Brouwer Adriaen Brouwer (, in Oudenaarde – January 1638, in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century.

, just as

David Ryckaert III David Ryckaert III, David Rijckaert III or David Rijckaert the Younger (2 December 1612, Antwerp - 11 November 1661, Antwerp)Joos van Craesbeeck Joos van Craesbeeck (''c''. 1605/06 – ''c''. 1660) was a Flemish baker and a painter who played an important role in the development of Flemish genre painting in the mid-17th century through his tavern scenes and dissolute portraits. His genre ...

were. This is clearly visible in ''The drinker'' (

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

). His village scenes follow the style of David Teniers the Younger's mature period. During that period Teniers had moved away from the traditional depictions of peasants as uncultured boors towards a more idealised and elevated perception of peasants and village life. An example is the ''Village inn'' in the Hermitage.

Picture galleries

He also painted 'gallery paintings' or 'picture galleries', a subject matter that had developed in Flanders in the 17th century. 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. Some gallery paintings include portraits of the owners or collectors of the art objects or artists at work. The paintings are heavy with symbolism and allegory and are a reflection of the intellectual preoccupations of the age, including the cultivation of personal virtue and the importance of connoisseurship. Gillis van Tilborgh - A Picture Gallery

Van Tilborgh’s master Teniers played an important role in the development of the genre and his mid 17th century gallery paintings of the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm are among the most famous examples of the genre.Marr, Alexander (2010) 'The Flemish 'Pictures of Collections' Genre: An Overview', Intellectual HistoryReview, 20: 1, 5–25 Other painters practicing the genre around the time of van Tilborgh include

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 i ...

Hieronymus Janssens Hieronymus Janssens or Jeroom Janssens (nicknamed ''Den danser'') (1624, Antwerp – 1693, Antwerp) was a Flemish genre painter known for his compositions depicting elegant companies engaging in dance, music or play, which were of influence on t ...

, Gonzales Coques, Jacob de Formentrou and Balthasar van den Bossche. An example of van Tilborgh’s gallery paintings is ''A Picture Gallery'' (c. 1660–70,

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

). It depicts a group of five elegantly dressed gentlemen in the act of appreciating several sculptures some of which they are holding. The walls of the room is covered with paintings in different genres. Some paintings, which the elegant figures already have or are about to evaluate, are resting on the floor or on a chair. At least one of the persons depicted is an artist as he is holding a brush and palette. Gillis van Tilborgh’s gallery paintings continue the trend initiated by Teniers to remove non-art objects from the gallery. He depicts his figures in the gallery paintings to emphasise that they form part of an elite who possess privileged knowledge of art. Gillis van Tilborgh - Elegant Company

In some of his gallery paintings he included artists at work. The genre of gallery paintings had by then become a medium to accentuate the notion that the powers of discernment associated with connoisseurship are socially superior to or more desirable than other forms of knowing. His series documenting paintings held at

castle are other examples of his contributions to the genre.

Portraits

His portraits of

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

sitters are similar to those of

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, ccessed 4 Octob ...

, who was referred to in his time as the 'little van Dyck'. Like many of his contemporaries such as Teniers and Coques, he painted allegories, an example of which is the series depicting the ''Five Senses'' (

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...

Guardroom scenes

He painted at least two 'guardroom scenes', a type of genre scene that had become popular in the mid-17th century, particularly in the Dutch Republic. In Flanders there were also a few practitioners of the genre including David Teniers the Younger,

Abraham Teniers Abraham Teniers (1 March 1629 – 26 September 1670) was a Flemish painter and engraver who specialized in genre paintings of villages, inns and monkey scenes. He was a member of artist family Teniers which came to prominence in the 17th century. ...

Anton Goubau Anton Goubau or Anton Goebouw (1616 in Antwerp – 1698 in Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He spent time in Rome where he moved in the circle of the Bamboccianti, Dutch and Flemish genre painters who created small cabinet paintings of th ...

Cornelis Mahu Cornelis Mahu (1613 – 16 November 1689) was a Flemish painter of still lifes, genre paintings and seascapes who showed a very high level of craftsmanship in his compositions. Life Mahu was born in Antwerp. Nothing is known about his train ...

and

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger (1660–1723) was a Flemish painter mainly known for his 'guardroom scenes' and still lifes. Van Tilborgh painted a '' Guardroom scene'' (sold by Jean Moust Old Master Paintings), which depicts an officer reading a letter for four men, amidst a pile of weapons and a war standard. The armour depicted in the picture was already out of date at the time it was painted since metal armours, breast plates and helmets fell out of use from the 1620s. It is possible that in line with the moralizing intent of the genre, the armour is a reference to the

vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-kn ...

motif of the transience of power and fame. The Hermitage collection includes a '' Guardroom'' scene which is ascribed to van Tilborgh. This scene is set in a very large guardroom with numerous people engaging in various activities. In the middle of the guardroom stand two gentlemen in what appears to be oriental dress.

Collaborations

As was the custom at the time, van Tilborgh often collaborated with other artists. He would typically take care of the

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 ...

while the collaborating artist painted the landscape. An example is the ''Family Portrait said to be of the Van der Witte Family'' painted together with landscape painter

Jan Siberechts Jan Siberechts (1627–1703) was a Flemish landscape painter who after a successful career in Antwerp, emigrated in the latter part of his life to England. In his early works, he developed a personal style of landscape painting, with an emphasis ...

(

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

, 5 July 2012, London, lot 134). In this composition, the artists placed their subjects on an unlikely steep rise overlooking their large estate. Another collaboration was with the landscape painter Guilliam van Schoor with whom he made a '' View of Tervuren castle'' (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). It includes a few workers and about a dozen aristocratic observers engaging in contemplative and leisurely activities. In the foreground are two people playing music. An exotic bird perched on the neck of the guitar provides through its intense colours a visual substitute for the music that cannot be heard.Richard Leppert, ''The Sight of Sound: Music, Representation, and the History of the Body'', University of California Press, 1 Nov 1999, pp. 29–31

References

Gillis van Tilborgh - Village Inn - WGA22406

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tilborgh, Gillis van Flemish Baroque painters Flemish genre painters Flemish landscape painters Artists from Brussels Painters from Brussels 1625 births 1678 deaths