SNIJERS, Peter - b. 1681 Antwerpen, d. 1752 Antwerpen

Peter Snijers (also Peeter Snyers), Flemish painter, draughtsman and art collector. He was a pupil of Alexander van Bredael (1663-1720). He was registered as a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1707. He became in 1741 one of the directors of the Antwerp Academy, which eventually replaced the Guild of Saint Luke.

He is reported to have resided in London in the period from 1720 to 1726, where he painted portraits of various members of the nobility. He was given the nickname De Heilige or The Holy One because of his calm and pious lifestyle.

Snijers was a versatile artist who painted in many genres including portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, still-lifes, flower pieces, animal paintings, fruit pieces, game pieces, vegetable still-lifes and plants. He painted both on large canvases and small copper plates. He was said never to have painted a composition twice.

He was the teacher of his nephew Pieter Jan Snyers

Vegetable Still-Life

This vegetable still-life in an interior contains a red cabbage, together with cauliflower, beetroot and onions in a wicker basket.

For most of the 20th century this picture was given to the Rotterdam painter Cornelis Saftleven. However, the picture has been recently re-attributed to Peeter Snyers. The confusion is logical as the two artists’ still-lifes are often quite similar in composition and subject matter.