Lancelot Volders
Lancelot Volders also erroneously known as Louis Volders, Lois Volders and Jan Volders (10 March 1636 (baptized) – 23 March 1723 (buried)) was a Flemish painter who specialised mainly in individual and group portraits but also produced a few history paintings and genre scenes.[1] After training and working in Brussels, he may have worked after about 1700 from time to time at the Stadhouderlijk Hof in Leeuwarden.[2]
Life
For a long time it was believed that the painters Lancelot Volders and Louis Volders were different persons and that the works signed 'L. Volders' and in a single case 'Louis Volders' had to be ascribed to the painter Louis Volders. Research by art historian Leen Kelchtermans published in 2013 has demonstrated that there is a preponderance of evidence for the conclusion that Lancelot Volders and Louis Volders are in fact the same person and that the correct first name was not Louis but Lancelot. In older literature, the artist was also mistakenly referred to as Jan Volders as the result of an incorrect reading of his signature.[2]
Volders was born in
He died and was buried in Brussels.Volders worked from the 1690s on commissions for members of the court of the
Volders may also have worked in Leuven in 1703 as evidenced by a signed and presumably dated group portrait (formerly in the Town Hall of Leuven, now in M – Museum Leuven, Leuven). The work is traditionally believed to represent seven city magistrates of Leuven gathered around a table presenting the bills. However, the date that was observed on the painting in the 19th century is no longer visible putting its dating in doubt. It is also not firmly established that the persons depicted are Leuven’s city magistrates.[6]
The prominent Brussels painter Victor Honoré Janssens was a pupil of Lancelot Volders for eight years starting from 1676. Volders also trained lesser known figures such as Frans Thierlincx (1663), Johannes de Reyff (1677) and Hendrick de Vos (1677).[3]
Work
Lancelot Volders was a specialist portrait painter but also created history paintings and genre scenes. The last works of Lancelot Volders are dated by Rudi Ekkart to 1713.[7]
He created group and individual portraits, mainly of the members of the Stadtholder court in Leeuwarden. He also painted in Leeuwarden portraits of the local aristocracy.
Volders was also a painter of history paintings and genre scenes. He painted an Entombment of Christ for the Rich Clares convent in Brussels.[11] A picture entitled Ladies with their servants (Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico) shows two courtesans busy making their toilet with their servants in attendance. The cosmetics, perfumes, jewelry and luxurious costumes of the courtesans contrast with the simple clothes of the servants. A bed shown on the right-hand side of the composition corroborates the interpretation that this is a scene of courtesans and not of bourgeois ladies.[12]
Portraits by Volders are in the collections of the Royal Collection of the Netherlands, the collections of German and Dutch descendants of the Dutch kings and of the Friesian Stadtholders. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has examples of miniatures made after his portraits. His works are further in the collections of the Fries Museum and Sminia (now Hans von Herwarth).[1]
References
- ^ a b c Lancelot Volders at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
- ^ ISBN 978-2-503-54228-7. (in Dutch)
- ^ a b Alex Pinchart, Lancelot Volders in: Courrier de l'Art, 1887, Vol. 7: Chronique Hebdomadaire des Ateliers, des Musées des Expositions des Ventes Publiques, des Concours des Théatres, Etc., Etc, 5 May 1883. Pp. 205-206 (in French)
- ^ Le Mayeur de Merpr, Lancelot Volders in Dictionnaire des peintres belges (in French)
- ISBN 978-9-051-94261-3.
- ^ Beatrijs Wolters van der Wey, Groepsvertoon Publieke groepsportretten in Brabant 1585-1800: studie vanuit maatschappelijk, typologisch en iconografisch oogpunt en kritische catalogus, doctoral thesis, KU Leuven, 2012, pp. 857-863 (in Dutch)
- ^ Rudolf Ekkart "Schilders aan het hof". In Groenveld, S.; Huizinga, J.J.; Kuiper, Y.B. Nassau uit de schaduw van Oranje. Franeker: Uitgeverij Van Wijnen, January 2003, pp. 113–120 (in Dutch)
- ^ Abraham Wassenbergh, De portretkunst in Friesland in de seventiende eeuw, De Tijdstroom, 1967
- ^ Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen. Antwerpen, de Sikkel 1957. 304 S. mit Abb. OLn. Gr.8°. Miscellanea Prof. Dr. D. Roggen, Antwerpen, de Sikkel 1957. 304 S. mit Abb. OLn. Gr.8°, p. 123
- ^ New Acquisition: Family Portrait in the Courtyard of a Brussels Palace at the Museum of the City of Brussels
- ^ Reginald Howard Wilenski, Flemish Painters, 1430-1830, Viking Press, 1960, p. 330
- ^ Artes de México, Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas, 1989
Further reading
- A. Staring, "Little-known portraitists, V. Louis Volders", in: Oud Holland 61 (1946), p. 177-184
- Dr. A.Wassenbergh, "Portraiture in Friesland in the 17th Century" Lochem 1967
External links
Media related to Lancelot Volders at Wikimedia Commons