- BROUWER, Adriaen
1605/6-38
Painter
- Adriaen Brouwer was the link between Flemish and Dutch genre painting. He was born in Flanders, but spent some time in Holland, and may have been a pupil of Frans Hals. His pictures, apart from a few landscapes, represent sordid tavern scenes, usually with boors carousing. He himself lived like that, and has been compared with Villon in consequence. His earliest works may start from the village scenes of Bruegel, and he may have known one of Breugel's sons before going to Amsterdam in 1625, and on to Haarlem, where he met Hals. In 1631/2 he was in the Guild in Antwerp and came under the influence of Rubens, who in turn admired him. His political activities led to imprisonment in 1633: the prison baker was Joos van Craesbeck, who became his pupil and imitator.
His best works are comparable with those of Steen and David Teniers II (both of whom were influenced by him), and have a delicacy of colour combined with a breadth of handling that compensate for his subjects, in which his most fervent admirers see an almost Rembrandtesque pathos.
The best collection of his works is in Munich: others are in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Brussels, Dresden, Frankfurt, Haarlem, The Hague, Leipzig, London (NG, V&A, Wallace Coll., Wellington Mus., Dulwich), Madrid (Prado), New York (Met. Mus.), Paris (Louvre, Petit Pal.), Philadelphia (Johnson), Rotterdam, Vienna (Akad.) and York.
- Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
- Search Site
| Art Rarities in Stock
Click Here to Buy Art Prints!
//INDEX// //SEARCH THIS SITE// //AMAZON.CO.UK//
| |