Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger (1660–1723) was a Flemish painter mainly known for his 'guardroom scenes' and still lifes. He was also active as an art dealer.

Life

Jan Baptist Tijssens the Younger was baptized on 21 September 1660 in Antwerp His younger brother Jacobus or Jacomo became a portrait and landscape painter.

He was a pupil of his father and Anton Goubau, a leading genre and history painter who had studied in Italy. He became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in 1689/90 and was active in Antwerp from 1688 to 1691. In 1691 he became co-dean of the Guild but bought himself free from his Guild obligations with a picture. Tilborch painted a Guardroom Interior with Armour and a Standard Behind (sold at Sotheby's on 10 July 2004 in London, lot 172), which depicts two soldiers and a woman drinking and smoking in a room. The soldiers are almost completely hidden behind a pile of weapons and a war standard. In its general arrangement and specific details such as the figures and the armour on the floor the painting is based on the signed composition of Tijssens' master Anton Goubau in the National Gallery in Prague. The Goubau painting continues to the left into a horizontal composition. It is likely that Tijssens' painting was cut down as on the extreme left margin the nose, moustache and chin of the figure next to the woman are visible. The original painting may therefore have been similar in composition to that of Goubau. The armour depicted in the picture was already out of date at the time it was painted since metal armours, breast plates and helmets fell out of use from the 1620s. It is possible that in line with the moralizing intent of the genre, the armour is a reference to the vanitas motif of the transience of power and fame.