Franz Snyders
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Oil on canvas, 194 x 340 cm
Franz Snyders (1579 - 1657) was a Flemish painter of animals and still life.
Snyders was born and died at Antwerp. In 1593, he studied under Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and subsequently received instruction from Hendrick van Balen, the first master of Van Dyck.
Snyders initially devoted himself to painting flowers, fruit and subjects of still life, but later turned to painting animals, and executed with the greatest skill and spirit hunting pieces and combats of wild animals.
His composition is rich and varied, his drawing correct and vigorous, his touch bold and thoroughly expressive of the different textures of furs and skins. His excellence in this department excited the admiration of Rubens, who frequently employed him to paint animals, fruit and still life in his own pictures, and he assisted Jacob Jordaens in a similar manner.
In the lion and boar hunts which bear the name of Snyders the hand of Rubens sometimes appears.
He was appointed principal painter to the Archduke Albert of Austria, governor of the Low Countries, for whom he executed some of his finest works. One of these, a Stag-Hunt was presented to Philip III of Spain, who commissioned the artist to paint several subjects of the chase, which are still preserved in Spain.
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
