Wouter Gysaerts or Gualterus Gysaerts (1649 – in or after 1677) 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; ...

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

painter who specialized in flower pieces and garlands.

Life

Gualterus Gysaerts was born in Antwerp as the nephew (or maybe the cousin) of

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 was a pupil of

Philip Fruytiers Philip Fruytiers (1610–1666) was a Flemish Baroque painter and engraver. Until the 1960s, he was especially known for his miniature portraits in watercolor and gouache. Since then, several large canvases signed with the monogram PHF have be ...

. He became a master in the local

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 1670. He moved to

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

in 1674 where he joined the local order of the

Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachin ...

called the

Recollects The Recollects (french: Récollets) were a French reform branch of the Order of Friars Minor, Friars Minor, a Franciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects took vows of poverty and devoted their lives to pray ...

. On becoming a monk he changed his first name from Wouter to Gualterus. He died in Mechelen in or after 1677.Gualterus Gysaerts
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 ...

Work

He mainly painted still lifes of flowers in vases and paintings with garlands in the style of the Flemish monk painter

Daniel Seghers Daniël Seghers or Daniel Seghers (3 December 1590 – 2 November 1661) was a Flemish Jesuit brother and painter who specialized in flower still lifes. He is particularly well known for his contributions to the genre of flower garland painting.I ...

. He generally signed with ''F.G. Gysaerts'' and later with ''F.G. Gysaerts Min.F''.Júlia Tátrai, ''The beatified martyrs of Gorkum. A series of paintings by David Teniers the younger and Wouter Gysaerts'', In: Geest en gratie. Essays presented to Ildikó Ember in her Seventieth birthday. Editor-in-chief: Orsolya Radványi. Co-editors: Júlia Tátrai, Ágota Varga. Budapest: Szépművészeti Múzeum; Elektropoduct Nyomdaipari Kft., 2012, pp. 26–33 Gysaerts collaborated with other painters particularly in the production of garland paintings. Garland paintings are a special type of still life developed in Antwerp by artists such as

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborato ...

Hendrick van Balen Hendrick van Balen or Hendrick van Balen I (c. 1573–1575 in Antwerp – 17 July 1632 in Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter and stained glass designer. Hendrick van Balen specialised in small cabinet pictures often painted on a copper ...

Frans Francken the Younger Frans Francken the Younger (1581 in Antwerp, 1581 – 6 May 1642, in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter who created altarpieces and furniture panels and gained his reputation chiefly through his small and delicate cabinet pictures with historical, m ...

Peter Paul 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 ...

and

. They typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter.Ursula Härting, ''Review of Susan Merriam, Seventeenth-Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image''
/ref> In 1676 Gualterus Gysaerts collaborated with his uncle David Teniers the Younger on a series of 19 garland paintings depicting the

martyrs of Gorkum The Martyrs of Gorkum ( nl, Martelaren van Gorcum) were a group of 19 Dutch Catholic clerics, secular and religious, who were hanged on 9 July 1572 in the town of Brielle by militant Dutch Calvinists during the 16th-century religious wars—sp ...

. The series was made for the Minorite Church in Mechelen following the beatification of the martyrs on 9 July 1676. Teniers painted the monochrome bust portrait of each martyr in a

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...

while Gysaerts painted the cartouche and the flower garland surrounding it. Of these paintings, 8 are still known to exist, one of which is in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

. Both Gysaerts and Teniers signed the painting in the Rijksmuseum.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gysaerts, Gualterus Flemish Baroque painters Painters from Antwerp 1649 births 1677 deaths Flemish still life painters