Background
Wouters was born in Lier, Belgium.
Wouters was born in Lier, Belgium.
He was first apprenticed to Pieter van Avont in Antwerp in 1629 but broke his contract to move to the workshop of Rubens in 1634.
He became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke the following year. He participated, under the direction of Rubens, in the decoration of the city of Antwerp on the occasion of the Joyous Entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in 1635. He spent the 1630s as court painter to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand World War II He was sent as an ambassador of Ferdinand II to England in 1637.
The following year, he became the painter of the Prince of Wales, the future Charles II of England.
In England, Wouters would certainly have had the opportunity to meet his compatriot Anthony van Dyck, who was at that time the court painter of Charles I of England. Even after his return to Antwerp in 1641 he remained in contact with Charles II during the period of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth.
He was described in 1658 as Charles’s "ayuda de cámera" (chamberlain). In Antwerp he collaborated again with Pieter van Avont mainly painting landscapes for van Avont"s paintings.
He became involved in the art market.
In this capacity he assisted in the valuation of the paintings from Rubens’ estate. In 1648, he became dean of the Guild of Saint Luke. He was involved in the sale of the George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham’s collection by the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1648.
At around this time Wouters began to work for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the then Governor of the Southern Netherlands.
Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.