Denis van Alsloot

Denis van Alsloot or Denijs van Alsloot was a Flemish landscape and genre painter, draughtsman, and tapestry designer. He was employed as a court painter and worked for the local elite in Brussels. He is considered to be a member of the Sonian Forest school of landscape painters, which included landscape painters such as Jacques d'Arthois and Cornelis Huysmans. These painters working in Brussels had a preference for depicting scenes from the Sonian Forest near Brussels. Van Alsloot was also a specialist in depicting civil processions, local festivals and ceremonies.

Life

Van Alsloot was born in Mechelen or possibly Brussels. In 1603 he designed a series of tapestries of Grotesques for the Archdukes.

His painting career seems to have started around 1606.

Van Alsloot painted topographically accurate as well as imaginary landscapes, including summer and winter landscapes. Like later landscape painters in Brussels such as Lucas Achtschellinck, Lodewijk de Vadder and Jacques d'Arthois, van Alsloot drew inspiration from the Sonian Forest near Brussels.

Some of his works have an archaic feeling and appear inspired by landscape painting of the 16th century. The style of his landscape paintings shows an affinity with the work of Gillis van Coninxloo. In comparison to van Coninxloo, van Alsloot's work is calmer and more static, uses a softer palette and is more precise of touch and more realistic. As such his work appears to be a synthesis of the styles of van Coninxloo and Jan Brueghel the Elder. He was also commissioned by the court of Albert and Isabella to paint views of their estates at Mariemont and Tervuren and of the Abbey of Groenendael.

Two of the six paintings of the Ommegang painted by van Alsloot are considered lost. Of the surviving works, two are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and two in the Prado Museum in Madrid. One of the paintings held in the Victoria and Albert Museum was split in two at an unknown date. An undivided copy of it made around 1635 is in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, while a copy of one of the halves is held by the Prado Museum.