Frans Snyders

Frans Snyders (Antwerp, November 11th 1579 - id. August 19th 1657) is a painter Dutch, raises Pieter Bruegel the Young person and of Hendrick van Balen.

Life and work

Painter specialized in the Still life , Frans Snyders carried out the essence of his work in his birthplace, Antwerp. Belonging to the important workshop of Rubens, even if he were not his pupil, he collaborated with him in several tables, like Philopœmène recognized by his hosts (museum of Prado, Madrid). It formed also itself several pupils, of which in particular Jan Fyt.

Its work is primarily composed of natural dead and scenes of huntings, on which it conferred a new monumentality. Perhaps its stalls of tradesmen, in particular of fishmongers (several specimens, preserved at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten and at Rockox House of Antwerp, the Museum of Prado of Madrid, at the Museum of the Hermitage in Saint Petersbourg, etc) constitute the most original part of its repertory.

Its compositions are organized in general around a stable horizontal element, like a table, on which elements are exposed disordered. The expansion of the objects can recall the abundance and the prosperity of Flandres to the 17th century. Its key is very close to that of Rubens, while playing on diluted pastings and glacis.

Snyders exerted a great influence on the French still life, in painters like Jean-Baptiste Oudry or Alexandre-François Desportes.

Random links: