Brouwer, Adriaen

born 1605/06, Oudenaarde, Flanders

died January 1638, Antwerp

Flemish painter.

After studying with Frans Hals in Haarlem с 1623, he returned to Flanders and by 1631 had settled in Antwerp. His pictures, mostly small and painted on panels, typically depict peasants drinking and brawling in taverns. The coarseness of his subjects was in direct contrast to his delicate technique; his virtuoso brushwork and sparkling tonal values were unsurpassed. Brouwer popularized genre painting in Flanders and Holland. Adriaen van Ostade and David Teniers were among his many followers.

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▪ Dutch painter

Brouwer also spelled  Brauwer  

born 1605/06, Oudenaarde, Flanders [now in Belgium]

 

buried Feb. 1, 1638, Antwerp

      Flemish genre painter who influenced artists in both Flanders and Holland.

 According to his biographer Arnold Houbraken (Houbraken, Arnold), Brouwer went to study under Frans Hals (Hals, Frans) in Haarlem about 1621 (he shares nothing of Hals's style, however, and others have suggested that he studied with his own father), gained a high reputation in Holland, and returned to the South Netherlands in 1631. There he was arrested and imprisoned by the Spaniards as a spy until September 1633. He then settled in Antwerp. Except for a handful of landscapes, apparently from his last years, all of Brouwer's pictures are of subjects drawn from common life—showing peasants smoking, drinking, or brawling in taverns; quack surgeons operating on grimacing patients; and so on. Most of the pictures are small and painted on panel. The coarseness of his subjects contrasts with the delicacy of his style, which in its mature stage shows an unusual mastery of tonal values.

Additional Reading

Gerard Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, trans. from Dutch (1962). Peter C. Sutton et al., The Age of Rubens (1993), is an exhibition catalogue.

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