Mathys Schoevaerdts

The earliest records about the artist date from 1682, the year in which he began his apprenticeship with the landscape painter Adriaen Frans Boudewijns.

His landscapes are full of anecdotes and delicately painted scenes of peasants travelling, sailing or attending kermesses.

[3] His early works show the influence of the market views and other crowded scenes of Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Jan Brueghel the Elder started the tradition of landscape paintings with decorative scenes in the early 17th century.

His style had a strong hold well into the 18th century on the next generations of Flemish painters including Izaak van Oosten, Peeter Gijsels, Adriaen Frans Boudewijns, Pieter Bout, various members of the van Bredael family, Balthasar Beschey, Carel Beschey and finally Théobald Michau.

[5] Because of their similarity in subject matter and style, Schoevaerdts' unsigned paintings have been mistaken for those of his master Adriaen Frans Boudewijns and Pieter Bout.

He sometimes introduced elements of fantasy in his compositions by including exotic-looking Turkish merchants into Flemish village scenes.

[5] He painted with a bright, clear palette and many of his landscapes include an atmospheric sunset or misty blue mountains in the far distance.