Peeter Gijsels (Antwerp 1621 - Antwerp 1690/1691)

The landscape and still-life painter Peeter Gijsels was baptized in the Sint-Jacobskerk, Antwerp, on 13 December 1621, the son of Peeter and Lucia Adriaens. His father, a poor rope maker, died in 1625. His mother brought her small family up in poverty; nevertheless, her son was able to buy, in 1641/42,²²P. 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 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 131, 134. an apprenticeship, but unusually late for he was about twenty years old, with the now obscure Jan Boets (or Boots; 1603-after 1684) with whom he remained for about eight to nine years, becoming a master in 1649/50.³³P. 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 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, p. 210. On 13 November 1650, he married Joanna Huybrechts in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, from which union there issued six children. His wife died in 1680/81, he followed in 1690/91.

Gijsels was early admired for his paintings in the style of Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625); indeed, his biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719) believed that he was his (or his son’s) pupil.⁴⁴A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlandtsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III, p. 41. In fact his master, Jan Boets,⁵⁵He gave his age as a witness in 1658 as 55, E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, VIII, p. 6, and was still alive in 1684, according to a notarised statement, Ibid., XI, pp. 269-70. was known as a copyist of the elder Brueghel;⁶⁶J. Denucé, Na Peter Pauwel Rubens, Antwerp 1949, pp. 249, 282, 285 etc.; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 90. and thus Gijsels would have become acquainted with his art in Boets’s studio. Probably later in his career, he became more indiscriminate in his choice of artistic mentors. There are landscapes in the style of Cornelis (1607/08-1681) and Herman (1609-1685) Saftleven,⁷⁷J. Sander and B. Brinkman, Niederländische Gemälde vor 1800 im Städel/Netherlandish Painting before 1800 at the Städel, Franfurt am Main (Städtische Galerie und Städelsches Kunstinstitut) 1995-98, pp. 61, 33-34. and perhaps his depictions of elegantly attired revellers owed much to the work of Jan van der Hecke (1620-1684).⁸⁸Y. Thiéry and M. Kervyn de Meerendré, Les peintres flamands de paysage au XVIIe siècle: Le baroque anversois et l’école bruxelloise, Brussels 1987, pp. 6-7. He executed still lifes in the style of Jacob van Es (c. 1596-1666)⁹⁹O. Koester, Flemish Paintings, 1600-1800, Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst) 2000, p. 119, KM Ssp. 271, and pl. 59. and Jan Davidsz de Heem (1601-1684)¹⁰¹⁰Anonymous sale, London (Robinson and Fisher), 24 June 1937, no. 37 (photograph Witt Library, London). which were very different from his more original, late style. His extant oeuvre is not large and dated works are few.¹¹¹¹Y. Thiéry and M. Kervyn de Meerendré, Les peintres flamands de paysage au XVIIe siècle: Le baroque anversois et l’école bruxelloise, Brussels 1987, p. 238.

He took time to make his mark, for Cornelis de Bie did not mention him in his Het gulden cabinet of 1661. But he wrote in praise of him in his annotated copy of the book. There he described Gijsels’s solitary nature; indeed, it is noteworthy that he never became an officer of the guild and is not recorded as having taken in apprentices.

REFERENCES
F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, III, pp. 39-42