Mathys Schoevaerdts
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Mathys Schoevaerdts or Matthijs Schoevaerdts (c. 1665/1667 – after 1702) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He is known mainly for his landscapes with trees, marines and genre scenes.Matthijs Schoevaerdts
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
He started out in the tradition of
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 ...
and later developed towards an Italianate style.


Life

Details about the life of Mathys Schoevaerdts are scarce. The earliest records about the artist date from 1682, the year in which he began his apprenticeship with the landscape painter
Adriaen Frans Boudewijns Adriaen Frans Boudewijns (Brussels, 3 October 1644 – Brussels, 3 December 1719) was a Flemish landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher. He was known mainly for his landscapes with trees, Italianate landscapes with architecture, rivers and ...
. This makes it likely that he was born somewhere between 1665 and 1667 assuming the age at which apprenticeships typically started was 15 to 17 years. His birthplace was likely Brussels.Adriaen Frans Boudewijns and Mathys (Mathieu) Schoevaerdts biography
, at Richard Green Fine Paintings
Mathys Schoevaerdts was admitted as a master of 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 1690. He served as a Dean of the Guild from 1692 to 1696. His work was highly appreciated during his lifetime and was widely collected throughout the 18th century. He spent time 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 ...
.Adriaen Frans Boudewijns and Mathys Schoevaerdts, ''A classical landscape with travelers and a shepherd crossing a river''
at Galerie Jan de Maere
His latest dated work is dated to 1702. It is believed that he died soon thereafter. A document from 1712 states that by then he was dead.Mathys Schoevaerdts biography
at Jean Moust


Work

Mathys Schoevaerdts is known for his landscape art and genre scenes. His landscapes are full of anecdotes and delicately painted scenes of peasants travelling, sailing or attending kermesses. His early works show the influence of the market views and other crowded scenes of
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 ...
. He had the same preference for the use of delicate light blues and greens as Brueghel. Jan Brueghel the Elder started the tradition of landscape paintings with decorative scenes in the early 17th century. His style had a strong hold well into the 18th century on the next generations of Flemish painters including
Izaak van Oosten Izaak van Oosten, Isaak van Oosten or Isaac van Oosten (sometimes, due to a repeated typographical error: Izaak van Costen)Peeter Gijsels Peeter Gijsels or Pieter Gijsels (1621, Antwerp – 1690, Antwerp), was a Flemish Baroque painter. He is known for his landscapes, architectural compositions and still lifes.Pieter Bout Pieter Bout (between 1640 and 1658 – between 1689 and 1719) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is known mainly for his landscapes, city, coast and country views and architectural scenes painted in a style reminiscent of earlier ...
, various members of the van Bredael family,
Balthasar Beschey Balthasar Beschey (1708, Antwerp – 1776, Antwerp) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter, draughtsman and decorative painter of interiors. He started his career as landscape painter but later on switched to history painting, history and portrait ...
, Carel Beschey and finally
Théobald Michau Théobald Michau (1676–1765) was a conservative Walloon painter of landscapes, more famous in his own time than he is today. Michau was born in Tournai and was a pupil of Lucas Achtschellinck. Subjects of the country festivals ('' Ker ...
. Typical of all their landscapes is the bucolic sense of happiness, and their small figures in anecdotic, detailed poses set against a backdrop of a pleasing landscape or buildings. Because of their similarity in subject matter and style, Schoevaerdts' unsigned paintings have been mistaken for those of his master Adriaen Frans Boudewijns and
Pieter Bout Pieter Bout (between 1640 and 1658 – between 1689 and 1719) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is known mainly for his landscapes, city, coast and country views and architectural scenes painted in a style reminiscent of earlier ...
. Schoevaerdts' compositions are typically filled with many figures. The figure groups are individualized and carefully observed. He sometimes introduced elements of fantasy in his compositions by including exotic-looking Turkish merchants into Flemish village scenes. He progressively developed a personal style where the events and scenes depicted are rendered with special accuracy. Schoevaerdts came later under the influence of the Dutch and Flemish artists who worked in Rome known as the
Bamboccianti The ''Bamboccianti'' were genre painters active in Rome from about 1625 until the end of the seventeenth century. Most were Dutch and Flemish artists who brought existing traditions of depicting peasant subjects from sixteenth-century Netherland ...
. He then started to paint landscapes with Italianate ports and ruins. The imaginative ruins or buildings in these landscapes were often decorated with foliage, which emphasises their dilapidated state. He re-used similar figures and architecture in different combinations in his landscapes. These Italianate landscapes revealed increasing depth and delicacy in the handling of the paint. He painted with a bright, clear palette and many of his landscapes include an atmospheric sunset or misty blue mountains in the far distance. He sometimes collaborated with his teacher Boudewyns and with other artists such as F Dupont (1660–1712), who provided the figures in his landscapes. His brother Frans Schoevaerdts was also a painter active in Brussels in the beginning of the 18th century. The brothers created together lively and animated ideal classical landscapes. Schoevaerdts' landscapes generally depicted imaginary views. Some more realistic views he painted include capriccio's" of views of Italy, a country that he never visited: one a view of Rome and the other a view of Venice. The artist must have relied on engravings for these more realistically looking landscapes. Schoevaerdts painted one topographical painting representing Maximilian II Emanuel in front of the Coudenberg palace of Brussels. Schoevaerdts also produced a small number of engravings depicting genre scenes. An example is ''The Game with the Apple''.Mathys Schoevaerdts, ''The Game with the Apple''
at the Rijksmuseum


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoevaerdts, Mathys Flemish Baroque painters Flemish landscape painters Flemish genre painters Flemish printmakers Artists from Brussels Painters from Brussels 1660s births Year of death unknown