Gillis Peeters the Elder

Gillis Peeters (1612 – 1653), was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver who contributed to the development of marine art and landscape painting in Flanders.

He is recorded in 1631 as the pupil of the Dutch flower painter Anthony Claesz the Younger who had left his home country in 1629.

The first time would have been in 1636 when he travelled probably in the company of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen who had been appointed the governor of the Dutch possessions in Brazil.

In its blue-green hues it resembles the work of his contemporary Flemish landscape artists such as Lucas van Uden.

[1] A Wooded rocky landscape with a couple tending sheep (Christie's, 14 November 2007 in Amsterdam, lot 191) of 1652 (but possibly 1632) is a typical example of his small-scale working style.

With their candy-like colours, picturesque buildings and feathery trees they seem to anticipate the Rococo idyllic visions of a François Boucher hundred years later.