Abraham Matthijs

At the age of 10 Abraham he was registered at the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke as a pupil of Tobias Verhaecht, a landscape painter who had been the first teacher of Rubens.

[3] Abraham became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1619 and had a pupil called Fransoeis Cosyn in that year.

He remained a bachelor his whole life and became a member of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance.

[3] He had an active role in the Sodaliteit der Jongmans van den Zoeten Naem Jesus, a fraternity for bachelors established in the Dominican church in Antwerp.

He had also commenced a painting to be hung over his grave in the church which was unfinished at the time of his death.

[3] Abraham Matthijs painted the Whalers in the ice (National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London).