Frans Pourbus II (Antwerp 1569 - Paris 1622)

The pre-eminent Flemish portrait painter of his generation, Frans Pourbus II was born at the end of 1569 in Antwerp;²²No record of baptism has been published; his age was given as 23 in Requestboek der Stad Antwerpen, 1592-93, fol. 195, dated 4 December 1592; it was given as about 24 in the Scabinale protocollen, 1594, in a document of 10 March 1594; his parents were married in the autumn of 1569, see F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, I, pp. 280, 284-85. he was named after his father, a noted artist and presumably his first teacher, who died in 1581 leaving him (and his younger half-brother) his ‘papieren vanden consten’.³³For Frans Pourbus I’s will, see B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 328. Frans probably then moved to Bruges to live with his paternal grandfather, the famous artist Pieter Pourbus (1524-1584), his guardian – Frans’s mother had died in 1578 – and likely teacher.⁴⁴P. Huvenne, Pieter Pourbus: Meester-Schilder, 1524-1584, exh. cat. Bruges (Memlingmuseum/Gemeentekrediet) 1984, p. 313, under 22 Nov. 1581; his father’s second wife, Anna Mahieu, whom he married in 1578, was a Protestant; she remarried in 1582 the painter Hans Jordaens, who emigrated to Delft soon after 1584. After the death of his grandfather in 1584 he may have remained with his grandmother in Bruges; there is a record of his working in that city in 1589 – the year following his grandmother’s death.⁵⁵Burchard in H. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 33 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVII, p. 315. He may have lodged with his maternal uncle, Cornelis Floris III, his other guardian,⁶⁶P. Huvenne, Pieter Pourbus: Meester-Schilder, 1524-1584, exh. cat. Bruges (Memlingmuseum/Gemeentekrediet) 1984, p. 313. on his return to Antwerp, where he was living in 1591 when he enrolled as a master (meestersoon) in the guild of St Luke.⁷⁷P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, I, p. 364. His first extant portraits date from this year.⁸⁸B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, pp. 183-88, nos. P.A.1-6. These show that by then his technique was impressively developed, and probably to cope with demand he took on an apprentice in the following year.⁹⁹P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76, I, p. 368; the surname is missing in the list as transcribed.

Pourbus is thought to have been active in Brussels from 1594, and a portrait of the Archduke Ernest of Austria, governor of the Netherlands (1593-95), has been attributed to him.¹⁰¹⁰M. de Maeyer, Albrecht en Isabella en de schilderkunst. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van de XVIIe-eeuwse schilderkunst in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, Brussels 1955, pp. 177-78 where he adduces as relevant the sale of Pourbus’s parents’ Antwerp home in 1594; for the portrait of Archduke Ernest, see B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, pp. 197-98, no. P.A.14. But the only documentation in support of such activity are records of 27 June and August 1600 of payment for paintings¹¹¹¹M. de Maeyer, Albrecht en Isabella en de schilderkunst. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van de XVIIe-eeuwse schilderkunst in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, Brussels 1955, p. 265, Doc. 12; the record of the payment was first published by A. Baschet, ‘François Porbus, peintre de portraits à la cour de Mantoue’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts pér. 1, 25 (1868), no. 4, pp. 277-98, esp. p. 279, note 1; see also B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 329, Doc. 1. made for the Archduke’s successors, Archduke Albert and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, joint sovereigns of the Netherlands, en poste from 1599. In August or September of that year he was hired by Vincenzo I Gonzaga (1562-1612), Duke of Mantua, and left for Mantua in mid-September of the following year.¹²¹²A. Baschet, ‘François Porbus, peintre de portraits à la cour de Mantoue’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts pér. 1, 25 (1868), no. 4, pp. 277-98, esp. pp. 280-81.

In 1603/04 he made portraits of Anna, the daughter of Archduke Ferdinand II, and of Konstanze and Eleonora, daughters of Archduke Karl II, in Graz and Innsbruck respectively, on behalf of Emperor Rudolf II.¹³¹³B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 283, no. P.B.6; pp. 207-09, P.A.24-25; pp. 329-30, Docs. 9-11. In 1605-06 he was in Turin to make portraits of Margherita and Isabella, daughters of the duke of Savoy, on behalf of Prince Francesco IV Gonzaga.¹⁴¹⁴B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, pp. 212-13, nos. P.A.31, P.A.32, and pp. 330-31, Docs. 13-23. In the summer following his return the artist joined the duchess of Mantua in Paris where he portrayed inter alia Marie de Médicis, Queen of France, and the dauphin.¹⁵¹⁵B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, pp. 217-19, P.A.33-P.A.37, and p. 331, Doc. 24; A. Baschet, ‘François Porbus, peintre de portraits à la cour de Mantoue’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts pér. 1, 25 (1868), no. 4, pp. 277-98, esp. p. 297, and note 3, see pp. 297-98 for Pourbus’s letter to the Duke of Mantua of 20 August 1606 in full. In the following year he was despatched to Naples to assess a collection of paintings on behalf of the duke of Mantua, from where he also recommended the purchase (unsuccessfully) of Caravaggio’s Madonna of the Rosary and Judith and Holofernes in a letter 25 September 1607.¹⁶¹⁶B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 333, Doc. 39 and pp. 352-53, Docs. 28-42 for the whole Neapolitan episode. In view of the duke’s requirement he was unable to obey the duchess’s request that he return to Paris for a short period to fulfil further commissions from the French queen; however, towards the end of 1609 he had made that journey. On 20 January 1610 he wrote from Paris to the duke implying that unless he received orders to the contrary he would prefer to stay in France as he was being well paid for his work, to which request the duke acceded.¹⁷¹⁷B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 334, Doc. 43; for the full text, see A. Baschet, ‘François Porbus, peintre de portraits à la cour de Mantoue’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts pér. 1, 25 (1868), no. 5, pp. 438-56, esp. p. 453, and note 1, pp. 453-54; for the Duke’s reply see Ibid., p. 454, and note 1.

Of the two extant dated portraits of 1610 and thus executed in Paris, one was of King Henri IV (the year of his assassination).¹⁸¹⁸B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, pp. 223-24, P.A.41. A good many but not all Pourbus’s commissions were from the royal family; notable was that of 1614 from the Parisian town council for the chimney piece of the council chamber.¹⁹¹⁹B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 249 and pp. 249-52, nos. P.A.71-74. In that year he was appointed peintre ordinaire of the king, or, as he was described three years later, ‘pintre [sic] et varlet de chambre du Roy’.²⁰²⁰See under the court judgement of 30 October 1617, published by B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 336, Doc. 59. From 1617 dates his first known altarpiece, a further three executed in successive years are extant.²¹²¹B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, pp. 266-76, nos. P.A.97-102; the whereabouts of the last altarpiece is not known. Ducos lists 105 oil paintings which he considers autograph, and twenty executed with studio assistance; concerning such assistance there is some contemporary evidence.²²²²See Pourbus’s letter of 15 January 1607, B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 331, Doc. 26, and the letter from the Tuscan ambassador to Francesco de’ Medici of 6 July 1611, Ibid., pp. 334-35, Doc. 51.

In 1614 was baptized a daughter by his common-law wife, herself the daughter of the Flemish artist Hieronymus Francken I (1540-1610).²³²³B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 338, Doc. 87. In 1618 Pourbus was naturalized a French subject.²⁴²⁴B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 338, Doc. 92. He died in 1622 and was buried on 19 February in the ‘Petits Augustins’.²⁵²⁵B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, p. 336, Docs. 65 and 64. No will has been traced.

REFERENCES
Burchard in H. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 33 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVII, pp. 315-18; B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus Le Jeune (1569-1622): Le portrait d’apparat à l’aube du Grand Siècle entre Habsbourg, Médicis et Bourbons, Dijon 2011, passim