Franciscus de Neve (I)

He was the father of Franciscus de Neve (II), who was also a painter.

Because early biographers such as Arnold Houbraken and Jean-Baptiste Descamps did not realise that there were two artists named Franciscus de Neve, they confused and merged the lives of father and son and placed the father incorrectly in Rome after 1660.

[2][3] Franciscus de Neve first gained a reputation in his hometown Antwerp with his history paintings.

It is not clear whether he worked like most Antwerp painters of his time on some of the large commissions of the Rubens workshop in the 1630s.

A monogrammed Portrait of a man dated 1635 (with Otto Naumann Ltd) shows the influence of the contemporary Flemish masters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.