Frans Ykens

Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase

Frans Ykens[1] (Antwerp, 1601 - Brussels, 1693) was a Flemish painter who specialised in flower and fruit still lifes.

Life

He studied with his uncle Osias Beert, one of the earliest painters to specialize in still lives. According to his own statement of 1641, he traveled after his apprenticeship to the Provence where he stayed, amongst others, in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille.[2] He was enrolled in 1631 as a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.[3] In 1635 he married the flower painter Catarina Ykens-Floquet, who was the daughter of Lucas Floquet I and the sister of three painters.[4] In 1665 he moved to Brussels, where he worked until his death.[3]

Ykens was the teacher of his niece Catherine Ykens (II), Osias Beert (II) and Gilliam Dandoy, who painted in his decorative style.[3][5]

Work

His oeuvre is fairly well established as he signed most of his work.[5] Early biographer Cornelis de Bie wrote in his book on painters called Het Gulden Cabinet that Ykens was good at painting "stilstaande dinghen" (stationary objects) such as fruit and flowers, along with Johannes Ykens.[6]

Holy Family in a Wreath of Flowers

He painted mainly fruit and flower still lifes as well as hunt and fish still lifes.[3] He often collaborated with other painters of his time, such as Daniel Seghers, Jacob Jordaens and probably Peter Paul Rubens. Ykens would paint the flowers and garlands while the other artists painted the remainder of the painting.[7]

Throughout his long career he was influenced by the work of other still-life painters, including the "breakfast" pieces (ontbijtjes) of Willem Claesz Heda and the pronkstillevens or large sumptuous still lifes of Frans Snyders. He was also influenced by Daniel Seghers' devotional garland paintings. Garland paintings are a special type of still life developed in Antwerp by Jan Brueghel the Elder in collaboration with the Italian cardinal Federico Borromeo at the beginning of the 17th century.[8] Other artists involved in the early development of the genre included Hendrick van Balen, Andries Daniels, Peter Paul Rubens and Daniel Seghers. The genre was initially connected to the visual imagery of the Counter-Reformation movement.[8] It was further inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally.[8][9] Garland paintings typically show a flower garland around a devotional image, portrait or other religious symbol (such as the host).[9] By the second half of the century secular themes such as portraits and mythological subjects also decorated the central part of the many paintings made in this fashion.[10] An example of a garland painting by Ykens is the Holy Family in a Wreath of Flowers in the Hermitage Museum, a collaboration with Erasmus Quellinus II.

Ykens was very popular with collectors of his time. He painted for Archduke Leopold in Brussels. His works were collected by Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland who purchased his work through Antwerp art dealers Forchondt. He was also very appreciated by his colleagues as is demonstrated by the fact that Rubens owned six of his still lifes.[5]

Notes

Still life with lobster
  1. ↑ Alternative spellings of family name: Eykens, Ijkens and Eykens and of his first name: Francoys
  2. ↑ Peter Mitchell, Frans Ykens in Grove Art Online
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Frans Ykens at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
  4. ↑ Catarina Ykens I at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Frans Ykens at de Enciclopedia online of the Prado
  6. ↑ Franchois Eyckens ende Ian Eyckens in Cornelis de Bie's 'Het Gulden Cabinet, 1662, courtesy of Google books (Dutch)
  7. ↑ Joost vander Auwera, Rubens: A Genius at Work: the Works of Peter Paul Rubens in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Reconsidered, Lannoo Uitgeverij, 2007, p. 50
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 David Freedberg, "The Origins and Rise of the Flemish Madonnas in Flower Garlands, Decoration and Devotion", Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, xxxii, 1981, pp. 115–150.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Susan Merriam, Seventeenth-Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012
  10. ↑ John Rupert Martin, "A Portrait of Rubens by Daniel Seghers," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 17 (1958), pp. 2-20.

References

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