Ambrosius Bosschaert

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (Antwerp, January 18, 1573–The Hague, 1621) was a still life painter of the Dutch Golden Age. He started his career in Antwerp, but spent most of it in Middelburg (1593–1613), where he became dean of the painters' guild. He later worked in Amsterdam (1614), Bergen op Zoom (1615–1616), Utrecht (1616–1619), and Breda (1619). He specialised in painting still lifes with flowers. In 1587, Ambrosius Bosschaert moved from ... more

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (Antwerp, January 18, 1573–The Hague, 1621) was a still life painter of the Dutch Golden Age. He started his career in Antwerp, but spent most of it in Middelburg (1593–1613), where he became dean of the painters' guild. He later worked in Amsterdam (1614), Bergen op Zoom (1615–1616), Utrecht (1616–1619), and Breda (1619). He specialised in painting still lifes with flowers. In 1587, Ambrosius Bosschaert moved from Antwerp to Middelburg with his family because of the threat of religious persecution. At the age of twenty-one, he joined the city’s Guild of Saint Luke. Not long after, Bosschaert had established himself as a leading figure in the fashionable floral painting genre. His bouquets were painted symmetrically and with scientific accuracy in small dimensions and normally on copper. They sometimes included symbolic and religious meanings. At the time of his death, Bosschaert commanded a thousand amateur painters for the production of one floral... less