MIROU, Anton

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

In the majority of the Schwalbach drawings Mirou chose a close-up view and a simple spatial construction developed with the use of diagonals or parallels. For example, in the House with Belfry in Heffebach the street winding across the houses is rendered with diagonals.

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

The subject of this little copper panel depicting the rest on the flight into Egypt, is merely a pretext for painting a wide landscape with forests and river, which displays the preromantic accents characteristic of the influence of the Frankenthal School.

The painting formerly was attributed to Paul Bril.

Mirou was a leading member of the group of artists known as the Frankenthal school. His Frankenthal-period landscapes, of which this is undoubtedly one, have their own distinct character and are influenced to a great degree by his fellow Frankenthal painter Gillis van Coninxloo. A majority of Mirou’s landscapes, unlike many of those of his contemporaries, are distinctive for the richly dressed figures that populate their woody paths.

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

In the majority of the Schwalbach drawings Mirou chose a close-up view and a simple spatial construction developed with the use of diagonals or parallels. The diagonal spatial construction of The Road from Schwalbach to Kemel is coupled with the decorative manner of drawing characteristic of Mirou: the road and the forms of the foliage of trees are rendered with zigzag lines and curves and the undulations of the landscape and the shaded surfaces of the foliage with vigorous hatching.

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

The present drawing provides a view onto a village tucked away in its natural geographical environment of gently sloping hills from an elevated vantage point.

Mirou executed several pen and ink drawings inspired by Schwalbach and its environment. The dates recorded on these sheets depicting peasants’ houses, village streets, and the fringes of forests suggest that Mirou visited the place several times between 1609 and 1618. He might have gone there partly for health reasons as well, since Schwalbach had been a popular resort well known for its medical spring. The drawings were presumably commissioned by the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623).

In the Wood near Schwalbach the village hidden in the distance can only be discerned through the pairs of trees outside of the forest. The drawing primarily focuses on rendering the curvatures of the older and younger trees and their foliages intertwining at the top of the sheet.

Formerly this painting was attributed to Gillis van Coninxloo whose influence can be seen in this picture.