Anton Goubau

Anton Goubau or Anton Goebouw (May 1616 – 11 March 1698) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He spent time in Rome where he moved in the circle of the Bamboccianti, a name given to mainly Dutch and Flemish genre painters who created small cabinet paintings of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. He is known for his Italianate landscapes and genre paintings in the style of the Bamboccianti and his history paintings with mythological and religious themes.

Life Goubau was born in Antwerp as the son of Antonius Goubau and Livina Cornet and baptized in the local Saint Georges Church on 27 May 1616. His family was well-off. He commenced his study of painting under the obscure painter Johannes de Vargas (Jan de Farius) in 1629. He became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1636 or 1637. Here he became close to the group of genre painters around the Dutch painter Pieter van Laar commonly referred to as the 'Bamboccianti'.

There is no evidence that he joined the Bentvueghels, the association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome, even though he painted a work entitled The study of art in Rome (1662, now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp), which depicts several members of the Bentvueghels making drawings of ancient ruins in a landscape outside Rome. He also continued to paint Italianate landscapes with many figures and ancient ruins serving an international clientele including German aristocrats. A good example of the genre is the Guardroom painting at the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg, which depicts eight soldiers around a table in a monumental room. In line with the moralizing intent of the genre, the various figures depict the Flemish saying Kaart, kous en kan maakt menig arm man (Cards, women and drink have ruined many a man). The card players are crouching on the floor, while a provocatively dressed woman is playing a lute and a soldier with his back turned towards the viewer is raising his glass to a man who is smoking. A man slumped in the right corner represents 'acedia' (apathy), considered to be one of the seven cardinal sins. The painting also references the theme of vanitas through the still life of a standard and military equipment at the front on the right, which expresses the transience of power and fame.

In addition to his cityscapes, Goubau painted many religious compositions, especially designed for churches in Antwerp.