Pieter Boel

[2] He was baptized in Antwerp on 10 October 1622 as the son of Jan Boel and Anna van der Straeten.

[5] By 1668–1669 he had moved to Paris where he formed part of the group of Flemish artists who had congregated around Charles Le Brun and resided at the Hôtel Royal des Gobelins.

[5] The court painter (Premier peintre du roi) Charles Le Brun had been put in charge of the Gobelins Manufactory, the royal tapestry works created in 1663 as well as the decoration of the various new buildings being constructed for the King.

[6] On three occasions, his name appears in the Comptes des Bâtiments du Roi (Accounts of the Royal Buildings), including for providing designs for the Gobelins tapestry works.

[7] Boel was closely related to two Flemish artists, who also lived at the Gobelins: Adam Frans van der Meulen and Gerard Scotin, an engraver.

As the king's ordinary painter, Boel was commissioned to create 'paintings of various animals to be used in the tapestries of the Gobelins Manufactory.

It is believed that a number of his compositions may have had their signature removed so that they could pass as works by Frans Snyders or his master Jan Fijt.

[9] Boel follows to a large extent the style of his teacher Jan Fijt, in particular in his smaller compositions featuring a hare or a few birds in the open air.

Boel's compositions differ from Fijt's works in their restraint and the smoother and more controlled handling of the paint.

[10] During his stay in Italy Boel got to know the work of the Genoese artist Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and the still life painter Giuseppe Recco.

He also used red drapes in the background, a Baroque element par excellence, to enhance the atmosphere of his compositions.

[11] Boel is known to have collaborated with fellow Antwerp artists Erasmus Quellinus II and Jacob Jordaens, who painted the human figures in his compositions.

[12] Boel was accomplished in large-scale vanitas paintings depicting an abundance of fruit, flowers, game and precious objects.

[8] His naturalism influenced a long line of great animal artists, from the painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry to the sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye.