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 |