WILLEBOIRTS BOSSCHAERT, Thomas

Flemish painter and printmaker. He moved to Antwerp in 1628, and entered the studio of Gerard Seghers for eight years. In 1637 he became an Antwerp citizen and joined the Guild of St. Luke. He was in close contact with Rubens, and he, too, was involved in the execution of the Torre de la Parada compositions. That work is lost.

Willeboirts was influenced by Van Dyck’s later style and he made Rubensian compositions in a Van Dyck style. To a great extent he worked for commissions by the Stadholder of Holland, Frederik Hendrik and his wife Amalia van Solms. After 1641 he executed dozens of commissions for mythological, allegorical and religious subjects, often in a landscape setting, especially for the court of the House of Orange in The Hague.

Bosschaert shows himself to be a faithful follower of Van Dyck, whose languorous style he manages to adapt in his own virtuoso way. The significance of his work for the Northern Netherlands is apparent from the unmistakable influence it exerted on Dutch history painters, such as Ferdinand Bol.