Mother and child

Cornelis de Vos was born into a Catholic family in Hulst, near the border between Holland and Flanders. This area was hotly disputed during the Eighty Years War (1568–1648) and in 1596 the De Vos family moved to Antwerp, confirming their Flemish rather than Dutch heritage. Soon after, Cornelis became an assistant in the workshop of the Antwerp artist David Remeeus, securing the young man’s place in the Flemish artistic tradition.

With the departure of Anthony Van Dyck to England around 1620, and with Peter Paul Rubens also spending little time in Flanders, De Vos became the most prominent portrait painter in Antwerp. This was during a time of economic prosperity for Flanders that saw a spike in the demand for high quality contemporary art, particularly portraiture, with which the wealthy Flemish burghers decorated their homes. For the next twenty years De Vos specialised in painting innovative and lively portraits, group portraits and subject paintings. Mother and child is typical of the portraits that De Vos made during the early phase of his mature style. At this time artists were often measured by the quality of their depiction of fabric and jewellery. Here De Vos has brilliantly portrayed the richness of the mother’s costume and he has eloquently captured the contrasting textures of silk, satin, brocade and lace. By combining very delicate painting with quite heavy impasto, De Vos has conveyed the tangible texture of different fabrics and embroidery.

In the early 1620s De Vos adopted a less reserved approach to portraiture by giving his sitters a degree of informality in gesture and pose. This is exemplified here in the relationship between the mother and child which is relaxed, natural and tender. Their intimacy provides great charm in what could have been a rather stiff and restrained portrait.

Text by Laurie Benson © National Gallery of Victoria, Australia