Paul Vos

Background

De Vos was born in Hulst near Antwerp, now in the Dutch province of Zeeland.

Education

Like his older brother Cornelis and younger brother January, he studied under the little-known painter David Remeeus (1559–1626).

Career

The de Vos family prospered and were able to make important investments in real estate in Antwerp. De Vos enjoyed the patronage of influential aristocrats in Spain such as the marquis the Leganes, head of the Council of Flanders in Madrid and Philippe-Charles, 3rd Count of Arenberg, then residing in Madrid. From the latter he obtained a commission to paint at least 36 paintings of birds, hunts and fables between 1633 and 1640.

In 1637-1638 he worked on the decorations for the Spanish royal residences, Buen Retiro and Torre de la Parada.

Most of the decorations at the Torre de la Parada involving animal scenes without humans were by his hand. The governor of the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand visited his workshop.

He had two pupils: Alex Daempt in 1627 and Lancelot van Daelen in 1636. His collaborations with Rubens consisted mainly of hunting scenes.

Other art historians regard the hunting scenes of de Vos as more dynamic and evidencing a more personal style when compared with those of Snyders, who was more a still life painter.

In their collaboration with Rubens, Snyders and de Vos often worked from sketches made by Rubens while in other cases they were given the freedom to develop their own ideas. The expressive style and motifs of Rubens" animal paintings had an important influence on both Snyders and de Vos. De Vos introduced new motifs into the iconographic tradition in his scenes of fighting cats and horses attacked by wolves.

Achievements

• One art historian has compared Paul de Vos" contributions to Rubens" hunting scenes with those of Paul Snyders" and found de Vos to be less accurate in the animal anatomy and less accomplished in the psychological expression of the animals.

Membership

Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.