WOUTERS, Frans - b. 1612 Lier, d. 1659 Antwerpen - WGA

WOUTERS, Frans

(b. 1612 Lier, d. 1659 Antwerpen)

Flemish painter and dealer. He was apprenticed to Pieter van Avont and then in 1634 moved to Rubens’s studio, where he may have worked on the decorations for the Pompa introitus Ferdinandi. In ¹⁶³⁴⁄₃₅ he became a master in Antwerp’s Guild of St Luke and shortly afterwards entered the service of Emperor Ferdinand II in Vienna. In spring 1637, however, he was in England, working on various commissions for Charles I, including ceiling paintings with mythological themes. At the same time he executed a number of small landscapes with figures and must also have been in contact with van Dyck.

By 1641 Wouters had returned to Antwerp, where, in his capacity as a dealer, he assisted in the valuation of the paintings from Rubens’s estate. He was also involved in the sale of the Duke of Buckingham’s collection by the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1648. At about the same time Wouters began to work for Archduke Leopold William.

Allegory of Sight

This painting originally has been part of a series representing the Five Senses, of which three (Sight, Taste and Touch) are known.

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Allegory of Taste

This painting originally has been part of a series representing the Five Senses, of which three (Sight, Taste and Touch) are known.

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Allegory of Touch

This painting originally has been part of a series representing the Five Senses, of which three (Sight, Taste and Touch) are known.

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Bacchanal

After entering the service of Archduke Leopold-Wilhem in c. 1648, the characters in Wouters’s paintings changed under the influence of Van Dyck. They acquire a more emotive and attenuated appearance.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):

Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson et Delila, Act III, Scene 2, Bacchanal

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Cloelia and Her Companions Escaping from the Etruscans

Cloelia was one of the ten daughters, who, with ten sons, of patrician Roman families, were given as hostages to Lars Porsena, the Etruscan king of Clusium, as a token of good faith following the conclusion of a treaty between Rome and the Etruscans. Cloelia escaped to Rome by re-crossing the Tiber on horseback, persuading her female companions to swim after her. The girls were sent back by the Romans but Porsena, in admiration of Cloelia’s courage, presented her with a horse and restored her freedom together with that of her companions.

This theme was common in Italian and northern Baroque painting.

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Landscape with Diana Resting

After working as court painter to the German Emperor Ferdinand II and Charles I of England, Frans Wouters settled permanently in Antwerp in 1641. From that moment his landscape compositions, often populated with mythological figures, were subject to the influence of Rubens’s later work.

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Venus and Adonis

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