Jacques d'Arthois

Jacques d'Arthois (12 October 1613 (baptised) – May 1686) was a Flemish painter and tapestry designer who specialized in wooded landscapes with figures. He often depicted the woods around his native Brussels. Jacques d'Arthois was an influential painter and one of the few 17th century landscape painters from Brussels whose fame was remembered in the following centuries as his style was imitated and followed by many other landscape artists.

Life Jacques d'Arthois was born in Brussels as the son of Henri Artois. He was baptized on 12 October 1613. On 11 January 1625 he became an apprentice to Jan Mertens, an artist whose work is not known. He became a master in the Brussels Guild of St. Luke in 1634. Nevertheless, based on the engravings made by Wenceslaus Hollar around 1650 after works by Jacques d'Arthois, it is possible to ascertain that his early works were quite close to the paintings of Lodewijk de Vadder. These early compositions leave the foreground rather uncluttered, show a sandy path sinking obliquely and rather compact clusters of trees. Later he turned towards more elaborate composition schemes that gave up realism in favour of decorative grandeur. In these later works, the landscape expands and the ample and powerful forms are underlined by contrasts of color. The foreground is furnished with many plants sometimes with bright flowers, which are set off by truncated stumps or the underground.

He was particularly skilled at painting tree trunks covered in moss and ivy.