Simon de Vos
Simon de Vos (20 October 1603 – 15 October 1676) was a
Life
Simon de Vos was born in Antwerp as the son of the dice maker Herman de Vos and Elisabeth van Oppen.[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Simon_de_Vos_-_Merry_Company_-_WGA25335.jpg/280px-Simon_de_Vos_-_Merry_Company_-_WGA25335.jpg)
At only 12 years old de Vos started his art studies in 1615 with the eminent portrait painter Cornelis de Vos (1584 – 1651), to whom he was not related.[2] Upon completion of his training in 1620, he became at the young age of 17 a master in Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke.[1]
There is uncertainty about de Vos' movements after he became a master. It is possible that he stayed in Antwerp, where he may have worked in the workshop of
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Simon_de_vos-fumadores.jpg/280px-Simon_de_vos-fumadores.jpg)
De Vos must have returned to his hometown in 1626 as in that year he married Catharina van Utrecht, a sister of the Antwerp still life painter Adriaen van Utrecht. The couple remained childless.[1] He worked in Antwerp for most of his life. He is known to have supplied art works for the Antwerp art dealers Forchondt and Chrysostoom van Immerseel. He enjoyed the respect of his peers as is shown by the fact that when Rubens died his estate included one of his pictures.[2][5] De Vos was successful financially. When his wife died in 1670 he possessed four properties in Antwerp and owned a collection of 290 paintings.
Between 1629 and 1649 he received 6 pupils.[1] These included Gregori de Greeff, the other Jan van Kessel (ca. 1620-in of na 1661), Jan van Kessel the Elder and Caspar van Opstal.[5]
Work
Early work: genre paintings
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Simon_de_Vos_-_The_Martyrdom_of_St_Philip.jpg/280px-Simon_de_Vos_-_The_Martyrdom_of_St_Philip.jpg)
De Vos' first works were
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Simon_de_Vos_-_The_Fortune_Teller.pdf/page1-280px-Simon_de_Vos_-_The_Fortune_Teller.pdf.jpg)
An example of a painting from this period is the Gathering of Smokers and Drinkers (
His works from the late 1620s until around 1640, which were made after returning to Antwerp, are mostly small "merry company" and courtly genre scenes reminiscent of contemporary Dutch painters Dirck Hals and Pieter Codde.[3]
Later work: history paintings
After 1640, de Vos turned almost entirely away from genre scenes and painted mostly religious,
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Dani%C3%ABl_Seghers_and_Simon_de_Vos_-_A_Garland_of_Flowers_Surrounding_a_Mocking_of_Christ.jpg/220px-Dani%C3%ABl_Seghers_and_Simon_de_Vos_-_A_Garland_of_Flowers_Surrounding_a_Mocking_of_Christ.jpg)
These later works were generally larger in format but used the compositional formulae of the cabinet paintings and therefore appear to lack balance. During this period he also created a 12-part series from Genesis (1635–44; Seville Cathedral and elsewhere), which includes a large number of animals. It is therefore assumed that Simon de Vos was likely a specialist in the field of animal painting.[2]
Collaborations
As was current practice in Antwerp in the 17th century, de Vos often collaborated with other artists who were specialists in their field.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Simon_de_Vos_-_Allegory_of_Vanitas.jpg/195px-Simon_de_Vos_-_Allegory_of_Vanitas.jpg)
He is known to have collaborated with the flower painter
An example of a collaboration between de Vos and Seghers on a garland painting is A Garland of Flowers Surrounding a Mocking of Christ (c. 1643, Nasher Museum of Art), which shows a garland of flowers painted by Daniel Seghers surrounding a cartouche depicting the mocking of Christ by de Vos.[6] De Vos also collaborated with the animal painter Frans Snyders.[10]
References
- ^ a b c d Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, Antwerpen, 1883, pp. 808–902 (in Dutch)
- ^ a b c d e Christine van Mulders, "Vos, Simon de," Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, [accessed 11 July 2014].
- ^ ISBN 0-300-07038-1
- ^ a b Gathering of Smokers and Drinkers at the Louvre
- ^ a b Simon de Vos at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
- ^ a b A Garland of Flowers Surrounding a Mocking of Christ at the Nasher Museum of Art
- ^ A Garland of Flowers Surrounding the Holy Family with St John at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b Susan Merriam, Seventeenth-Century Flemish Garland Paintings. Still Life, Vision and the Devotional Image, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012
- ^ J. Michalkowa: Les tableaux de Simon de Vos dans les collections polonaises, Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, vol. XVIII (1977), p. 19 (in French)
External links
Media related to Simon de Vos at Wikimedia Commons