Abraham Govaerts

In September 1626 an epidemic ran through Antwerp. The painter Abraham Govaerts died of it on the 9th, aged 37, and his wife Isabella Gielis four days later. His whole career fits into less than 20 years, since he became a master in the city's painters' guild, the Guild of Saint Luke, in 1607, at about 18.

In that time he made his name with small forest landscapes, cabinet pictures meant to be looked at up close. His models were Gillis van Coninxloo, a pioneer of the dense Flemish forest view, and Jan Brueghel the Elder, the most sought-after painter of small pictures in Antwerp. As so often in the city, the work was shared. Govaerts painted the trees and the light, and specialists such as Frans Francken the Younger or Hendrick van Balen added the figures and animals to many of his woods. Around 1620 his colours grew clearer, with small dabs of light scattered through the foliage. In 1623 the guild chose him as its dean, and one of his pupils, Alexander Keirincx, later carried the Flemish forest landscape to Amsterdam and London.