Guardroom Interior with Armour and a Standard Behind

by Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger

Dominicus Smouts - A Miser -

Dominicus Smout or Dominicus Smouts (before 1671 – 1742 or later) was a Flemish painter of genre scenes who was active in Antwerp between 1683 and 1733.

Details about the life of Dominicus Smout are scarce and his birth and death dates are unknown. It is assumed that he was born in Antwerp as the oldest child of the painter and art dealer Lucas Smout the Elder and Anna Maria Tijssens. His father had studied under Artus Wolffort and was a figure painter. His younger brother Lucas Smout the Younger became a painter of coastal and country scenes while two of his sisters married painters. His mother was a member of the prominent Tijssens or Tyssens family of artists in Antwerp, which included artists such as Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger. His father died in 1674 and his mother in 1686. His sister Clara Catharina continued to operate the art and painting materials business of her parents. She later married the battle painter Gonzales Franciscus Casteels. Another sister married the painter Jacob Herreyns the Elder.

Dominicus Smout was registered in 1683-1684 in the registers of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of the history painter Godfried Maes. In 1700-1701 he was registered as a 'wijnmeester' (i.e. the family member of an existing or former member) of the Guild. The last records regarding Dominicus Smout in the Guild's books date to 1733.

Smout appears to have been active in Antwerp throughout his career.He remained a bachelor. He made a will in 1742 in which he left all his drawings, sketches and prints to his nephews Franciscus en Carolus Casteels, who likely also were painters.

Lucas Smout II - Het strand bij Scheveningen -

Lucas Smout the Younger or Lucas Smaut (27 February 1671 – 8 April 1713) was a Flemish painter of coastal and country scenes who was active in Antwerp.

Details about the life of Lucas Smout are scarce. He was born in Antwerp as the youngest child of the painter and art dealer Lucas Smout the Elder and Anna Maria Tijssens. His father had studied under Artus Wolffort and was a figure painter. His brother Dominicus (or Domien) became a genre painter while two of his sisters married painters. His mother was a member of the prominent Tijssens or Tyssens family of artists in Antwerp, which included artists such as Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger. His father died in 1674 and his mother in 1686. His sister Clara Catharina continued to operate the art and painting materials business of her parents. Upon discovering Lucas' artistic talent, she sent him to study art under a master.

Lucas was registered in 1685-86 in the registers of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of the marine artist Hendrik van Minderhout.

Smout was active in Antwerp throughout his career but must have visited the Dutch Republic since he painted a few views of Scheveningen beach. Smout was not very productive as he suffered from gout, which affected his hands. This may also be the reason why he remained unmarried and lived in the house of his eldest sister Clara Catharina who was married to the painter Gonzales Franciscus Casteels. Another sister married the painter Jacob Herreyns the Elder.

He died in Antwerp in 1713.

Jan Baptist Tijssens - Guardroom Interior with Armour and a Standard Behind - 

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger (1660-1723) was a Flemish painter mainly known for his 'guardroom scenes' and still lifes. He was also active as an art dealer.

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger - Guardroom with fighting soldiers - 

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger (1660-1723) was a Flemish painter mainly known for his 'guardroom scenes' and still lifes. He was also active as an art dealer.

He is mainly known for his genre scenes and still lifes but also painted mythological and Christian religious scenes. His still lifes are mainly still lifes of armour in addition to a few hunting pieces.

He was specialized in 'guardroom scenes', a type of genre scene that had become popular in the mid-17th century, particularly in the Dutch Republic. In Flanders there were also a few practitioners of the genre including David Teniers the Younger, Abraham Teniers, Tijssens' master Anton Goubau, Cornelis Mahu and Gillis van Tilborch. A guard room scene typically depicts an interior scene with officers and soldiers engaged in merrymaking. Guardroom scenes often included mercenaries and prostitutes dividing booty, harassing captives or indulging in other forms of reprehensible activities. Tilborch painted a Guardroom Interior with Armour and a Standard Behind (sold at Sotheby's on 10 July 2004 in London, lot 172), which depicts two soldiers and a woman drinking and smoking in a room. The soldiers are almost completely hidden behind a pile of weapons and a war standard. In its general arrangement and specific details such as the figures and the armour on the floor the painting is based on the signed composition of Tijssens' master Anton Goubau in the National Gallery in Prague. The Goubau painting continues to the left into a horizontal composition. It is likely that Tijssens' painting was cut down as on the extreme left margin the nose, moustache and chin of the figure next to the woman are visible. The original painting may therefore have been similar in composition to that of Goubau. The armour depicted in the picture was already out of date at the time it was painted since metal armours, breast plates and helmets fell out of use from the 1620s. It is possible that in line with the moralizing intent of the genre, the armour is a reference to the vanitas motif of the transience of power and fame.

Jan Baptist Tijssens II - An officer smoking a pipe by a grotto - 

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger (1660-1723) was a Flemish painter mainly known for his 'guardroom scenes' and still lifes. He was also active as an art dealer.

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger was baptized on 21 September 1660 in Antwerp as the third son of Augustijn Tijssens the Younger (1623-1675) and Maria Laureyssens, a niece of Jacob Jordaens. His father was a landscape artist and painter. His grandfathers Augustijn Tijssens the Elder and Peter Laureyssens were art dealers. His uncle Jan Baptist Tijssens the Elder was a landscape and religious painter. Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger and Jan Baptist Tijssens the Elder are often confused with each other. His younger brother Jacobus or Jacomo became a portrait and landscape painter.

He was a pupil of his father and Anton Goubau, a leading genre and history painter who had studied in Italy. He became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in 1689/90 and was active in Antwerp from 1688 to 1691. In 1691 he became co-dean of the Guild but bought himself free from his Guild obligations with a picture. He travelled to Italy. He was recorded in Düsseldorf where he worked for a while as an art dealer for the Elector. He was in Rotterdam in 1695 and is also recorded in Breda and in England.

As an art dealer he is known to have traded two Ribera's and Rubens works with Suzanna Forchondt, daughter of Guillam Forchondt and Mary Lemmens. The documents showed a wax seal on the back with the initials P and L. The letters refer to the name of his grandfather Peter Laureyssens. Jann Baptist had inherited this mark from his grandfather.

Tijssens died in his birthplace Antwerp on 4 October 1723.

Cornelis Mahu - Tavern interior - 

Cornelis Mahu (1613 – 16 November 1689) was a Flemish painter of still lifes, genre paintings and seascapes who showed a very high level of craftsmanship in his compositions.

Cornelis Mahu was a skilled painter of genre scenes depicted in an interior or outside setting. He was inspired by the various subjects developed by David Teniers the Younger, Adriaen van Ostade and Jan Miense Molenaer such as barn interiors, guardroom scenes and tavern interiors. These lively paintings are full of figures with exaggerated and rough features.

Cornelis Manu was one of a few Flemish artists who painted 'guardroom scenes'. Guardroom scenes are a type of genre scene that had become popular in the mid-17th century, particularly in the Dutch Republic. In Flanders there were also a few practitioners of the genre including David Teniers the Younger, Abraham Teniers, Anton Goubau, Gillis van Tilborch and Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger. A guard room scene typically depicts an interior scene with officers and soldiers engaged in merrymaking. Guardroom scenes often included mercenaries and prostitutes dividing booty, harassing captives or indulging in other forms of reprehensible activities.

Mahu painted a Guardroom with the Release of St. Peter (Sold at Agraa Art on 17 October 2004), which is freely inspired by two compositions of David Teniers the Younger in the Wallace Collection and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. Cornelis Mahu's work depicts soldiers and officers on three different planes engaging in various activities such as gambling, smoking and talking. At the front left there is a pile of weapons and a drum. The armour depicted in the picture was already out of date at the time it was painted since metal armours, breast plates and helmets fell out of use from the 1620s. It is possible that in line with the moralizing intent of the genre, the armour is a reference to the vanitas motif of the transience of power and fame. The composition also includes a religious scene of the 'Release of St. Peter', which is visible through a gate in the background of the painting. This inclusion of a religious scene in a larger composition is reminiscent of the work of 16th century painters in Antwerp such as Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer who placed small religious scenes in the background of lush scenes of markets.

Anton Goubau - Peasants and travellers making music - 

Anton Goubau or Anton Goebouw (1616, Antwerp – 1698, Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He spent time in Rome where he moved in the circle of the Bamboccianti, Dutch and Flemish genre painters who created small cabinet paintings of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. He is known for his Italianate landscapes and genre paintings in the style of the Bamboccianti and his history paintings with mythological and religious themes.

Goubau is best known as a painter of market scenes placed in a Roman or Mediterranean setting, often decorated with many small figures in the style of the Bamboccianti. The name Bamboccianti is given to a loose group of principally Dutch and Flemish genre painters who were active in Rome from about 1625 until the end of the seventeenth century and took as the subject of their paintings the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. During his trip to Italy, Goubau was able to familiarize himself with the work of masters like Paul Bril (known for his Italianate landscapes) and the Bamboccianti painters Jan Miel, Jan Both, Michael Sweerts and Johannes Lingelbach. This was crucial to the development of his style and subject matter along the Italianate genre style.

On his return to Antwerp he painted Italianate landscapes with many small figures which show the influence of Bartholomew Breenbergh, Jan Both and the early Roman compositions of Jan Asselijn. He showed generally more interest in evoking a Roman atmosphere than correct topographical representation and combined several sites in Rome to create a kind of synthesis of the sights in Rome. In some paintings he shows a more specific topographical interest.

He occasionally painted so-called 'guardroom scenes', a type of genre scene depicting an interior with officers and soldiers who spend their off duty time making merry. The genre had become popular in the mid-17th century, particularly in the Dutch Republic. In Flanders there were also a few practitioners of the genre including David Teniers the Younger, Abraham Teniers, Gillis van Tilborch, Cornelis Mahu and Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger. Guardroom scenes often included mercenaries and prostitutes dividing booty, harassing captives, or indulging in other forms of reprehensible activities. A good example of the genre is the Guardroom painting at the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg, which depicts eight soldiers around a table in a monumental room. In line with the moralizing intent of the genre, the various figures depict the Flemish saying Kaart, kous en kan maakt menig arm man (Cards, women and drink have ruined many a man). The card players are crouching on the floor, while a provocatively dressed woman is playing a lute and a soldier with his back turned towards the viewer is raising his glass to a man who is smoking. A man slumped in the right corner represents 'acedia' (apathy), considered to be one of the seven cardinal sins. The painting also references the theme of vanitas through the still life of a standard and military equipment at the front on the right, which expresses the transience of power and fame.

In addition to his cityscapes, Goubau painted many religious compositions, especially designed for churches in Antwerp. He also made a number of religious paintings on copper as part of a series made for the Spanish market to which other Flemish painters such as Willem van Herp, Erasmus Quellinus II, and possibly Abraham Willemsens contributed. The series is now kept in the Convent of las Comendadoras de Santiaga in Madrid.

He painted portraits as evidenced by the portrait of Gaspar de Witte, which was engraved by Richard Collin for Cornelis de Bie's collection of artist biographers entitled Het Gulden Cabinet.

Anton Goubau - Guardroom - ca. 1650

Anton Goubau or Anton Goebouw (1616, Antwerp – 1698, Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He spent time in Rome where he moved in the circle of the Bamboccianti, Dutch and Flemish genre painters who created small cabinet paintings of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. He is known for his Italianate landscapes and genre paintings in the style of the Bamboccianti and his history paintings with mythological and religious themes.

Goubau was born in a well-off family in Antwerp. He commenced his study of painting under Jan de Farius in 1629. He became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1636 or 1637. He is recorded in Paris in 1642 and then travelled on to Italy. He stayed in Rome from 1644 to 1650. Here he became close to the group of genre painters around Pieter van Laar commonly referred to as the "Bamboccianti".

There is no evidence that he joined the Bentvueghels, the association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome, even though he painted a work entitled The Study of Art in Rome (1662, now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp), which depicts several members of the Bentvueghels making drawings of Antique ruins in a landscape outside Rome. This proves that he moved in the circle of the Bentvueghels.

In 1650 Goubau returned to Antwerp, where he received many commissions for religious works. He also continued to paint Italianate landscapes with many figures and antique ruins serving an international clientele including German aristocrats.

His pupils included Abraham Couchet, Arnold Gerardi, Justus Gerardi, Laureys Goubau, Nicolas de Largillière, Jan Baptist Tijssens the Elder and Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger.

Goubau died in Antwerp on 11 March 1698.