An artist in his studio

This painting follows the example of Gillis van Tilborgh the Younger (Brussels c. 1625-c. 1678), an important genre painter in the southern Netherlands in the seventeenth century, who trained with David Teniers the Younger. In 1666, he was appointed Keeper of the picture collection at Tervuren Castle, near Brussels, which seems to have induced him to paint mostly collectors’ galleries and kunstkammers from that point on, works on which his reputation chiefly rests today. On occasion he painted artists at work in their studios (for an example see Christie’s, New York, 23 April 2021, lot 58), as in the present picture; the back wall is hung with a broad selection of paintings, including portraiture, still lifes, landscapes and marine scenes, and the room is filled with assistants, easels and onlookers.