Jan Cossiers

The Flemish painter and draughtsman Jan Cossiers (1600–1671), active in the seventeenth century, pursued a career connected with Antwerp, where his practice encompassed religious and mythological subjects as well as drawn portraits. The son of the watercolour painter Antoon Cossiers and Maria van Cleef, he was baptised in Antwerp on 15 July 1600. He is said to have received his initial training from his father and Cornelis de Vos; in 1623, he travelled to Aix-en-Provence to study with Abraham de Vries. His presence in Rome is documented in October 1624. On his return to Antwerp in 1628, he joined the Guild of Saint Luke as the son of a master.

His place in Antwerp’s professional life is also marked by his election as dean of the guild for the register year running from September 1640 to September 1641. In 1635, Cossiers collaborated with Rubens on the Entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria into Antwerp. Three years later, following sketches by Rubens, he executed three mythological paintings commissioned by Philip IV for the Torre de la Parada: Narcissus, Jupiter and Lycaon, and Prometheus Bringing Fire. The three works are now held at the Museo del Prado. The biographical source reports that he probably saw works by Caravaggio in Rome; it identifies a Caravaggesque tendency in his painting, particularly in its use of chiaroscuro and the choice of certain subjects.

His repertoire also includes religious compositions. La Buenaventura is known through several variant versions, held in Valenciennes, at the Hermitage and at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp holds, among other works, his Adoration of the Shepherds and his Flagellation of Christ; his Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, dated 1647, is at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow. Among the works from his later period is a series on the Passion, painted for the beguines of Mechelen. Cossiers was also a draughtsman: several portraits of children, some of whom are his own children, are numbered, identified by the name of the sitter and dated 1658.

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Koller

Attribué à JAN COSSIERS — A cheerful company at a card game.

Oil on canvas

Original catalogue wording

Attribué à JAN COSSIERS — A cheerful company at a card game.
oil on canvas
Attributed to

Date to be documented

Attributed to

Published result : 18750 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 15000–25000

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