Adriaen van Utrecht (

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,

, 12 January 1599 – 1652) was a Flemish painter known mainly for his sumptuous banquet

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 ...

s, game and fruit still lifes, fruit garlands, market and kitchen scenes and depictions of live poultry in farmyards. His paintings, especially the hunting and game pieces, show the influence of Frans Snyders. The two artists are considered the main inventors of the genre of the

pronkstilleven ''Pronkstilleven'' (Dutch for 'ostentatious', 'ornate' or 'sumptuous' still life) is a style of ornate still life painting, which was developed in the 1640s in Antwerp from where it spread quickly to the Dutch Republic. Development Flemish art ...

s, i.e. still lifes that emphasized abundance by depicting a diversity of objects, fruits, flowers and dead game, often together with living people and animals.Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms: Pronkstilleven
/ref> Van Utrecht also painted a number of flower still lifes. He was a regular collaborator with leading Antwerp painters who had been pupils or assistants of

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 ...

, such as

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Fle ...

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 ...

Erasmus Quellinus II Erasmus Quellinus the Younger or Erasmus Quellinus II (1607–1678) was a Flemish painter, engraver, draughtsman and tapestry designer who worked in various genres including history, portrait, allegorical, battle and animal paintings. He was a ...

Gerard Seghers Gerard SeghersGerard Seghers
at the

Theodoor Rombouts Theodoor Rombouts (2 July 1597 – 14 September 1637) was a Flemish painter who is mainly known for his Caravaggesque genre scenes depicting lively dramatic gatherings as well as religiously-themed works.Hans Vlieghe. "Rombouts, Theodoor." Gr ...

Abraham van Diepenbeeck Abraham van Diepenbeeck (9 May 1596 (baptised) – between May and September 1675) was Dutch painter of the Flemish School. Biography Van Diepenbeeck was baptised in 's-Hertogenbosch. After having received a classical education, he became ...

and

Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (1613 – 23 January 1654) was a Dutch Republic-born Flemish Baroque painter. Biography Willeboirts Bosschaert was born in Bergen op Zoom, where his Catholic family had moved in the late sixteenth century. He moved ...

Life

Adriaen van Utrecht was born in Antwerp as the son of Abel van Utrecht en Anne Huybrecht. In 1614 he became a pupil of Herman de Neyt, a painter and art dealer who owned an extensive art collection. After completing his apprenticeship with de Neyt, he travelled to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where he worked for the local courts. He returned to Antwerp in 1625 following his father's death in the preceding year and he became a free master of 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 ...

.F. J. Van den Branden, 'Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool', 2 vols (Antwerp, 1883), pp. 1082–1084 Adriaen van Utrecht
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History At the wedding of his sister Catharina and the painter

Simon de Vos Simon de Vos (20 October 1603 in Antwerp – 15 October 1676 in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and art collector. He started his career making small-format cabinet pictures of genre scenes, in particular of Caravaggesque merry co ...

in 1628, he met Constancia van Nieulandt (or 'van Nieuwlandt'), the 17-year-old daughter of the painter and poet Willem van Nieulandt II. The following year van Utrecht married Constancia. The couple had 13 children. Constantia became a painter and poet in her own right. She is believed to have shared the work in her husband's studio and may have painted partial or entire copies and variations of her husband's work. A still life with fruit fully signed by Constancia van Utrecht and dated 1647 is entirely in the manner of her husband.F Meijer, ''Some Flower paintings by Adriaen van Utrecht 1599–1652, a Still Life of Fruit by Constancia van Utrecht (after 1606- after 1647 and a portrait of Adriaen and Constancia, '' in: Oud Holland, 109, 1995, pp. 165–169 Van Utrecht became a successful artist who received international commissions from the Emperor of Germany, king

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...

and the Prince of Orange. He could afford to live in spacious dwellings on the Meir in Antwerp, the most prestigious location in the city. His fortune seems to have declined in the late 1640s, possibly due to ill health and by the time he died in Antwerp in 1652 he had lost most of his wealth. Between 1626 and 1646 he trained at least seven known pupils, including

Philip Gyselaer Philip Gyselaer, also Giselaer (''c''. 1620 – after 1650), was a Flemish painter specialized in history painting in the tradition of Willem van Herp. He was registered at the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke as a pupil of Adriaen van Utrecht in 1634.

(1634/35), and Cornelis van Engelen.

Work

General

Van Utrecht was mainly a

painter. The range of still life subjects that he tackled was wide and included scenes of fish, meat and vegetable stalls, kitchen scenes often including figures or living animals adding a narrative element, displays of game in larders or as hunting trophies, still lifes of fish, fruit and vegetables. More recently, on the basis of a signed and dated ''Vase of Flowers'' of 1642, a few still life paintings with bouquets of flowers have been attributed to van Utrecht. Van Utrecht also painted barnyard scenes with living animals, typically including poultry such as chickens, turkeys, ducks and peacocks. His early work was influenced by Frans Snyders. Van Utrecht did not favor bright colours the way Snyders did but rather preferred warm earthen tones, especially grey-green, and strong

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

effects.Scott A. Sullivan. "Utrecht, Adriaen van." '' Grove Art Online''. ''Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web. 15 September 2015 The latter was likely derived from his knowledge of Italian painting and in particular the works of followers of

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

Market and kitchen scenes

Adriaen van Utrecht created market and kitchen scenes which incorporated large still lifes of game, fish, vegetables and fruit. He thus stood in the tradition of this genre as pioneered in the 16th century by artists in Antwerp such as Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer and as it had been further developed by Frans Snyders in the early 17th century. Adriaen van Utrecht - Fishmonger's Stall

Adriaen van Utrecht - Fishmonger's Stall

For some of his market and kitchen scenes Adriaen van Utrecht took direct inspiration from compositions by Snyders such as in the '' Fishmonger's Stall'' (

Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent The Museum of Fine Arts ( nl, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) an art museum in Ghent, Belgium, is situated at the East side of the Citadelpark (near the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst). The museum's collection consists of some 9000 artworks ...

) in which he relied on motifs and compositional elements present in Snyders' '' Fish market'' (

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

). As in Snyders' composition, van Utrecht's ''Fishmonger Stall'' relies on the human figures and hanging fish to create the vertical component in contrast to the horizontal element of the table. The diagonals are created through the disposition of the fish but van Utrecht is less interested in dynamic movement than Snyders and therefore his diagonal lines are more muted. The figures in van Utrecht's composition were painted by another painter, possibly

Gerard Seghers Gerard SeghersGerard Seghers
at the

Still Life with Lovers'' dated 1631 (

Bowes Museum The Bowes Museum is an art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoît ...

) in which a woman shirks away from a young man who is trying to place his hand on her bosom. The pair are standing before a table which is covered with an abundance of baskets of fruit, asparagus, artichokes, cabbages, leeks and poultry. On the left side of the painting a monkey is seen pointing towards the pair from a window. Monkeys were typically symbols of unrestrained lust and the monkey's presence emphasizes the moral message of this kitchen scene. The choice of vegetables and birds reinforces this interpretation.

Pronkstillevens

The elaborate still lifes produced by Frans Snyders and Adriaen van Utrecht in the 1640s accentuated overwhelming abundance by depicting a diversity of objects, fruits, flowers, and dead game, often in combination with human and animal figures. Adriaen van Utrecht let the objects spill over from the table on which they were displayed to the floor below such as in the composition ''A pantry'' (

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

, 1650). He also relied on Baroque devices, such as a sweeping curtain and background window view, to add movement and depth. These sumptuous still lifes initiated the genre of the pronkstillevens, which was also taken up by painters from the Northern Netherlands. A typical example of a pronkstilleven by van Utrecht is the ''Banquet still life'' (

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 ...

, 1644). In this picture the notion of abundance is emphasized through the depiction of exclusive and expensive imported fruits, an exotic South-American parrot and other items of luxury such as musical instruments and expensive table ware. Given its low vantage point, the large painting (height 185 cm; width 242.5 cm) was likely intended as a chimneypiece. In the '' Still life with parrot'' (also known as the ''Allegory of fire''), dated 1636 (

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 ...

), van Utrecht shows an elaborate display of all the foreign and local luxury items, including Chinese porcelain and a parrot, that were available in the Antwerp market. This offers him the opportunity to display his virtuoso skills at rendering all kinds of materials and textures and the reflection of light on various surfaces. In the background there is scene of a man working at a stove stirring a cauldron and moving the bellows. It is clear that van Utrecht intended the composition to be a eulogy of the creative force of fire, which was involved in the production of many of the items depicted in the still life.

Flower pieces

Adriaen van Utrecht- Vanitas - Still Life with Bouquet and Skull

It was not known that van Utrecht painted flower bouquets until the discovery of a piece depicting a vase of flowers which was signed by van Utrecht and dated 1642. Based on this work, several other flower paintings have been attributed to van Utrecht. His flower paintings clearly show the influence of the prominent Antwerp flower painter Daniel Seghers. The '' Vanitas Still-Life with a Bouquet and a Skull'' (Sotheby's, 29 May 2003, private collection) dated to 1643 was identified as a work by van Utrecht based on the similarity of the flower bouquet to the signed painting of the vase of flowers. The subject of vanitas as depicted here was unusual for van Utrecht and shows that his role in the development of new types of still life has not been sufficiently recognized in art-historical literature.

Collaborations

As was common in Antwerp's art sector at the time, van Utrecht collaborated with other specialist artists, typically figure painters. He is known to have provided the still life elements in paintings by

Jan Cossiers Jan Cossiers (Antwerp, 15 July 1600 – Antwerp, 4 July 1671) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. Cossiers' earliest works were Caravaggesque genre works depicting low life scenes. Later in his career he painted mostly history and religi ...

. He is believed to have also collaborated with

Theodoor van Thulden Theodoor van Thulden (1606–12 July 1669) was a painter, draughtsman and engraver from 's-Hertogenbosch. He is mainly known for his altarpieces, mythological subjects, allegorical works and portraits. He was active in Antwerp, where he had tra ...

and

Jan van den Hoecke Jan van den Hoecke ( – 1651) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of wall tapestries. He was one of the principal assistants in Rubens' studio in the 1630s. He later traveled to Italy where he resided for a decade in Rome. He subseq ...

. The collaborative work with Jan Cossiers (dated 1639, private collection) depicts van Utrecht with his wife Constancia in a kitchen amidst an extensive still life with game, lobster, fish and vegetables. It is not always clear who painted the figures in the large market and kitchen scenes and recently it has been suggested that

Gerard Seghers Gerard SeghersGerard Seghers
at the

Fishmonger's Stall'' (

Adriaen van Utrecht, Theodoor Rombouts - Kitchen

The collaborations between artists often created opportunities for patronage. Van Utrecht's regular collaborator Willeboirts Bosschaert relied on his good connections with Constantijn Huygens to secure for van Utrecht commissions for decorations at

Huis ten Bosch Huis ten Bosch ( nl, Paleis Huis ten Bosch, ; English: "House in the Woods") is a royal palace in The Hague, Netherlands. It is one of three official residences of the Dutch monarch; the two others being the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague and ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

in 1646. Huis ten Bosch was the residence of the Dutch

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

Frederik Hendrik of Orange Frederick Henry ( nl, Frederik Hendrik; 29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647) was the sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1625 until his death in 1647. In the l ...

's widow,

Amalia von Solms Amalia may refer to: People *Amalia (given name), feminine given name (includes a list of people so named) *Princess Amalia (disambiguation), several princesses with this name Films and television series * ''Amalia'' (1914 film), the first ...

Tapestry design

Van Utrecht also contributed to

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

designs. In particular, it is known that he was asked by court painter and designer

to assist with a series of tapestries under the title 'Allegory of Time' (c. 1650) made for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. Several other artists such as Pieter Thijs, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert also worked on the series. Ten preparatory oil sketches that van den Hoecke made for the series have survived (four in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), as have eight tapestries based on the designs for ''Day and Night'' and ''The Months''. Based on the differences between the modelli and the executed tapestries of the tapestries representing the months of January and February, it is believed that Adriaen van Utrecht made improvements to the animals in van den Hoecke's modelli which were then included in the finished works.

Influence

Adriaen van Utrecht - A barn interior with a turkey

Van Utrecht's work influenced

Jan Davidsz de Heem Jan Davidsz. de Heem or in-full ''Jan Davidszoon de Heem'', also called ''Johannes de Heem'' or ''Johannes van Antwerpen'' or ''Jan Davidsz de Hem'' (c. 17 April 1606 in Utrecht – before 26 April 1684 in Antwerp), was a still life painter ...

Evaristo Baschenis Evaristo Baschenis (7 December 1617 – 16 March 1677) was an Italian Baroque painter of the 17th century, active mainly around his native city of Bergamo. Biography He was born to a family of artists. He is best known for still lifes, most com ...

, and

Nicolas de Largillière Nicolas de Largillière (; 10 October 1656 – 20 March 1746) was a French portrait painter, born in Paris. Biography Early life Largillière's father, a merchant, took him to Antwerp at the age of three. As a boy, he spent nearly two years in ...

Abraham van Beyeren Abraham Hendriksz van Beijeren or Abraham van BeyerenAlso known as 'Abraham van Bergaren (c. 1620, The Hague – March 1690, Overschie (Rotterdam)) was a Dutch Baroque painter of still lifes. Little recognized in his day and initially active as ...

is believed to have been influenced by van Utrecht's pronkstillevens, which he likely saw in the

for which van Utrecht had contributed decorations in 1646.Walter A. Liedtke, 'Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art', Volumes 1–2, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, p. 34

Collections

Van Utrecht's work is represented in numerous museum collections, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, the

, the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, the Hermitage, the Nationalmuseet

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, the

, and in the USA the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...

, Malibu, the Fine Arts Museum,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, the

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Fine Arts Museum, the National Gallery Bulgaria. It is also part of public collections in Arras, Belgrade, Brussels, Cambrai, Cologne, Copenhagen, Lithuania, Munich, Tokyo and other cities.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Utrecht, Adriaen Van Flemish Baroque painters Flemish still life painters Painters from Antwerp 1599 births 1652 deaths

Life

Work

General

Market and kitchen scenes

Pronkstillevens

Flower pieces

Collaborations

Tapestry design

Influence

Collections

References

Further reading

External links