Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger

Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen or Gasparo Pedro Verbruggen (baptized on 11 April 1664 in Antwerp – buried on 14 March 1730 in Antwerp) was a Flemish still life painter who is principally known for his decorative still lifes with flowers and fruit. He collaborated with figure artists on compositions which combined figures with a still life element. He was active in Antwerp and The Hague.

Life

Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen was born in Antwerp as the son of Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Elder and his father's first wife Catharina van Everdonck. His father was a successful still life painter and the young Gaspar Peeter grew up in a prosperous home. His father trained him from an early age. Gaspar Peeter the Younger became in the Guild year 1677-1678 a master of the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp at age 13.

Verbruggen became the deacon of the Guild in the Guild year 1691/1692. In 1694 he gave one of his works called Flower garland surrounding a statue of Apollo (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) to the Guild in thanks for accepting his pupils Balthasar Hyacinth Verbruggen and Jacob Melchior van Herck without paying a fee.

Verbruggen was successful and lived in a house on the high-end Meir. He married on 22 June 1700 with Dymphna van der Voort. His wife died not long after the union and was buried on 18 September 1702. The artist lived above his means and was forced in 1703 to sell all his paintings. The revenue from the sale was not sufficient to cover all his debts.

He decided to leave Flanders for the Dutch Republic in 1705. He established himself in The Hague where he received many commissions for the decoration of prominent residences. His works represent a development towards a more decorative style in late 17th century Flemish still life painting. He placed the flower bouquets in his compositions in large stone vases or arranged them in the form of garlands around these vases or garden ornaments. The vases were often placed in outdoor settings with figures. His style was followed by Jan Baptist Bosschaert, Simon Hardimé, Pieter Hardimé and Pieter Casteels III. His large vertical paintings with their tripartite division had an influence on Jan Baptist Bosschaert.

Collaborations Verbruggen collaborated with various specialist painters including the figure painters Peter Ykens and Jacob Leyssens in Antwerp and Matheus Terwesten in the Hague. The Antwerp painter Peeter-Frans Bailliu painted the vases, figures and grisailles in some of his compositions. The collaborators on his paintings have not always been identified with certainty. For instance, the collaborator in the painting Margaret Lemon as Erminia who painted the female figure after an original by Anthony van Dyck was believed to be Adriaen Hanneman but that attribution is no longer believed to be accurate.

Verbruggen collaborated on a number of compositions in the genre of 'garland paintings'. Garland paintings are a type of still life invented in early 17th century Antwerp by Jan Brueghel the Elder and subsequently practised by leading Flemish still life painters, and in particular Daniel Seghers. Paintings in this genre typically show a flower or, less frequently, fruit garland around a devotional image or portrait. In the later development of the genre, the devotional image was replaced by other subjects such as portraits, mythological subjects and allegorical scenes.

Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter.