Gysbrecht Thys or Gysbrechts ThysGysbrecht Thys
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (baptized on 20 January 1617,

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,

– after 1661) was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp known for his religious and mythological works as well as for his nudes. He also painted landscapes.Gysbrecht Thys, Schilder van Antwerpen
in: Cornelis de Bie, 'Het Gulden Cabinet', Jan Meyssens, Antwerp, 1661, p. 412 Very few paintings have been attributed to the artist to date.Gysbrecht Thys, ''Bacchanale''
at Artcurial
at Koller Auktionen on 23 March 2018, Zurich, lot 3036

Life

Very little is known about the life of Gysbrecht Thys. He was born in Antwerp. It is believed he was a cousin of the more famous history and portrait painter Pieter Thijs. He was registered as a pupil at the local Guild of Saint Luke in the guild year 1629-1630. He became a master painter at the Guild in the guild year 1636-1637.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde
Volume 2, Antwerp, 1864, p. 4, on Google books He married Catharina Lodewijcx on 20 January 1650. The date of his death is not known with certainty. He was described by Cornelis de Bie as being still alive when his book of artist biographies 'Het Gulden Cabinet' came out in 1661. The 19th century art historian Georg Kasper Nagler stated he died in 1684, citing Jean-Baptiste Descamps' ''La Vie des Peintres Flamands, Allemands et Hollandois'' (mid 18th century), although Descamps does not mention this death date.

Works

Thys was described by his Flemish contemporary Cornelis de Bie as a painter particularly skilled in nudes as well as in religious and mythological works. De Bie also credited him with being a good landscape painter. Later Dutch biographers

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

and

Jacob Campo Weyerman Jacob Campo Weyerman (9 August 1677 – 9 March 1747) was a painter and writer during the period known as the Dutch Enlightenment. His work encompassed flower and fruit still life paintings, satirical magazines, plays, and biographies of painters ...

claimed he was a portrait painter but this may have been a misreading of de Bie's ''Gulden Cabinet'' or a confusion with his cousin Pieter Thijs.Gysbrecht Thys Biography
in

, ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'', 1718 De levens-beschryvingen...Volume II
, p 218, on the digital library of the University of Utrecht A work sold as a ''Bacchanal'' but now identified as a representation of the Golden Age is signed and dated '… THYS F. 1653' (At Artcurial on 26 March 2014, lot 121). The Louvre has a photo on file of a painting of the artist, the location of which is unknown. This lost painting shows many similarities in style and in the figures with the composition depicting the Golden Age. Thys was also active as a figure painter and collaborated with specialist figure painters on so-called 'garland paintings'. Garland paintings are a type of still life invented in early 17th century Antwerp by Jan Brueghel the Elder and subsequently practised by leading Flemish still life painters, and in particular Daniel Seghers. Paintings in this genre typically show a flower or, less frequently, fruit garland around a devotional image or portrait. In the later development of the genre, the devotional image is replaced by other subjects such as portraits, mythological figures and allegorical scenes.Susan Merriam, ''Seventeenth-Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012David Freedberg, "The Origins and Rise of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands, Decoration and Devotion", ''Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst'', xxxii, 1981, pp. 115–150. Garland paintings were typically collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. The ''Stone cartouche with a depiction of the Madonna and Child and John the Baptist surrounded by bouquets of flowers and fruits'' (At Koller Auktionen on 23 March 2018, Zurich, lot 3036) is an example of a collaboration on a garland painting by Thys and the Antwerp still life painter

Joris van Son Joris van Son or Georg van Son (baptized 24 September 1623 – buried 25 June 1667 in Antwerp) was a Flemish still life painter who worked in a number of sub-genres but is principally known for his still lifes of fruit. He also painted flowers, ...

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thys, Gysbrecht Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Flemish landscape painters Artists from Antwerp Painters from Antwerp 1617 births 1684 deaths