Michiel II Coignet (1618 – c.1663) was a Flemish painter specialized in small paintings for cabinets.
Michiel II was born and died in Antwerp. He was the son of
Michiel Coignet
Michiel Coignet (also Quignet, Cognet or Connette in Italian) (1549 in Antwerp – 24 December 1623 in Antwerp) was a Flemish polymath who made significant contributions to various disciplines including cosmography, mathematics, navigation and car ...
(1549–1623), the court mathematician of the Archdukes, and his second wife Magdalena Marinus (? - 1663). Michiel II became a successful painter and earned a comfortable living. In 1641 he was admitted, as a master's son, to the Guild of St Luke. He married Maria Salet, with whom he had at least six children: Michiel III, Maria, Cornelis and three children whose names are not known.
A number of signed and ascribed paintings of Michiel Coignet have been sold and a series of four is part of the collection of
Lamport Hall
Lamport Hall in Lamport, Northamptonshire is a fine example of a Grade I Listed House. It was developed from a Tudor Manor but is now notable for its classical frontage. The Hall contains an outstanding collection of books, paintings and furnitu ...
. He seems to have had a workshop in which rather small and stereotype paintings could be ordered. He was also very active making paintings for cabinets and received many orders from the cabinet maker Forchondt.R. Fabri(1993), p.87-88. Subjects of these plates usually were the lives of saints. He also restored damaged paintings and despite the fact that we know that he had many of these commissions few of these small paintings have been signed and only a few paintings in cabinets are ascribed to him.
Works by or ascribed to Michiel II Coignet
*Cabinet with love scenes, Forchondt workshop and Michiel Coignet, after 1642, J. Zeberg Antiques, Antwerp.
*Cabinet, Forchondt workshop and Michiel Coignet, Rockoxhuis, Antwerp.
*Cabinet, collection Ch. van Zuylen, Aigremont Castle.
*''The Prodigal Son'', 4 paintings, Lamport Hall, Lamport, Nothinghamshire.
*''Venus and Adonis'', oil on metal, 17,2 x 22,9 cm, Sotheby's, New York, 1 February 1977.
*''The Jewish People in the Desert'', oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, Kunsthaus am Museum, Cologne, 16 June 1978.
*''Still life with bottle'', oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm, Campo & Campo nr.3, Antwerpen, 25–27 May 1993.
*''Didon et Enée'', 1658, panel, 53 x 75 cm, Etude Daussy de Ricoles, Paris, 5 April 1995.
*''A Landscape with Christ on the Way to Emmaus with a Farmer sowing seeds near a Mansion on a river'', oil on copper, 50,8 x 66 cm, Christie's, London, 6 July 1995.
*''Der Auszug aus der Arche Noah'', oil on copper, 27 x 35 cm, also ascribed to