Mathys Schoevaerdts

The master of fantasy landscapes
The Dutch Golden Age in the 17th Century is well documented and the demand for art grew rapidly during this period of prosperity for the increasingly wealthy bourgeoisie in the cities throughout northern Europe. Now it was not only the nobility or the church which was among the potential clients but more and more rich merchants in the cities wanted art like still lifes, genre pictures, portraits and especially landscapes.
The development of landscape paintings during this period was huge and spread in different directions. One genre where the marine landscapes with an immense clarity in sea and wind, another were the battle paintings with their often political messages. Very popular became the Italian landscapes when more and more artists went to Italy to study and work and then returned home. Not unusual was that they then mixed places from memory like Italian ruins and then put theese elements in a landscape that was closer to the artist's homeland.
The Dutch landscape paintings at this time was rather small in size, while the Flemish were often larger. Many of the Flemish paintings are often filled with stories, and the more you look the more things are revealed. A good example of this genre from the late 17th Century and early 18th Century are works of the Flemish artist Mathys Schoevaerdts. In his evocative landscapes all social classes meet. There is often Italian ruins side by side with architecture typical of northern Europe. Festival scenes, so-called kermesses’ is common which captures the imagination.
His pictures often consist of several levels with a river landscape that draws your gaze further into the depths towards the blue mountains in a dim haze. But perhaps it is mainly his figure scenes that first draws your eyes to it.
The Flemish artist Mathys Schoevaerdts created bright panoramic landscapes in the style of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). Schoevaerdts was born probably in Brussels about 1665. He became a pupil of the landscape painter Adrian Frans Boudewyns (1644-1711) in 1682 and in 1690 he became a master in the Guild of St. Luke. For a period he had also guild highest position as dean.
Schoevaerdts specialized in landscapes filled with people, where little scenes often unfolds, there are farmers who are traveling, fishermen in boats or happy dance and festival scenes. His figure groups are detailed, carefully constructed and sometimes he introduced small fantasy elements, for example he to put exotically dressed merchants dressed in the middle of a Flemish village.
Schoevaerdts painted with a bright, clear palette and many of his landscapes possess a depth of the composition, preferably with an atmospheric sunset or misty blue mountains in the distance. He had a long and successful career and many of his best paintings was created during the last years of his life, during the eighteenth century.