Friday, October 9, 2020

Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622) - Flemish Portraitist

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Charles, Prince of Arenberg, his wife Anne de Croy,
and their elder children

(self portrait of the artist in the background at extreme left)
ca. 1593
oil on canvas
Arenberg Castle, Leuven, Belgium

Frans Pourbus the Younger
The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia,
Archduchess of Austria

ca. 1598
oil on panel
Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Albrecht, Archduke of Austria
ca. 1590
oil on panel
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Marie de Huelstre, wife of Willem van Vyve
1591
oil on panel
private collection

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Willem van Vyve
1591
oil on panel
private collection

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Philip William, Prince of Orange
ca. 1599
oil on canvas
private collection

"Son of Frans Pourbus the Elder and grandson of Pieter Pourbus, Frans Pourbus the Younger trained in his grandfather's studio and was accepted as a master in Antwerp in 1591.  During his early years in Antwerp, Pourbus' style was strongly influenced by the work of his father and grandfather.  And although his style was individualised during the course of his artistic development, he always remained faithful to the Flemish tradition and never embraced the baroque movement [his late painting of The Annunciation at the end of the post might seem to belie such an assertion].  He sought faithfully to render a likeness, whilst also aspiring to an idealism – the royal dignitas which singles out his work.  He endeavoured to represent above all the status and character of his sitters through a set of attitudes, gestures, looks, and the sumptuous splendour of their costumes, while the plasticity of their flesh, the careful modelling of their faces and hands, evoke the delicacy of French enamels of this period.  In the 1590s Pourbus worked for Archduke Albrecht and Infanta Isabella at their court in Brussels, but departed for Mantua in 1600, where he was appoint court painter to Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.  He received numerous commissions from the ducal family and travelled to Innsbruck in 1603 to depict members of the family, followed by Turin in 1605-1606, and Paris, where he painted the young Louis XIII, then Dauphin, and his mother Marie de' Medici, the sister of the Duchess of Mantua.  Following another trip to Italy in 1607, he returned to Paris where he entered the service of Marie de' Medici and subsequently that of Louis XIII in 1616, until his death in 1622."

– text adapted from notes published by the Weiss Gallery, London

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Portrait of a Gentleman
1591
oil on panel
private collection

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Eleanor, Archduchess of Austria
1603
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Maria Maddalena of Austria, Archduchess of Tuscany
ca. 1603-1604
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Giovanni Battista Marino
(poet and early patron of Nicolas Poussin)
ca. 1621
oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Margherita Gonzaga, Duchess of Lorraine
(daughter of Vincenzo, 4th Duke of Mantua
and Eleonora de' Medici)
ca. 1606
oil on canvas
private collection

Frans Pourbus the Younger
Portrait of a Gentleman
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Frans Pourbus the Younger
The Last Supper
1618
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Frans Pourbus the Younger
The Annunciation
ca. 1619
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy