Mathieu Dubus

Mathieu Dubus (South Flanders, possibly in Ypres, c. 1590 – The Hague, between 11 June 1665 and 30 May 1666) was a Flemish-born decorative and landscape painter who was active in The Hague in the Dutch Republic. He painted fantastic landscapes with rocks and stark contrasts of light and dark, which appear modern and unlike those of his contemporaries.

Life Mathieu Dubus was born in the south of Flanders, possibly in Ypres. Nothing is known about how he ended up in the Dutch Republic or with whom he trained.

Where or with whom he trained is unknown. In 1626, he is mentioned as a painter to the Dutch stadholder, the Prince of Orange. He worked as a decorative painter at the palaces of the stadholder in The Hague. This included work on the ceiling of the Great Hall at Noordeinde Palace which he embellished with birds and on the galleries at Huis ter Nieuburg in Rijswijk and Buren Castle where he added gold-leaf foliage. The artist married three times. Another daughter called Maria married the decoration painter Bartholomeus van Winden while a third daughter married Bartholomeus' brother, the minor painter Gerardt van Winden.

Mathieu Dubus may have been the father or elder brother of Johan Baptist Dubus, a painter recorded working in The Hague in 1664.

The death date and place of Mathieu Dubus are not known but it is believed that he died in The Hague.

In The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Dubus took the biblical episode from Genesis 19,1-29, which he depicted in the right bottom corner hidden under brittle, tattered masonry, as an opportunity to lead the viewer around among various bizarre forms. His observational stance could be called impressionistic. In this work Dubus also simulated in the background a paesina, i.e. a marble stone which appears to depict a landscape. The artist thus imitated a piece of nature that imitated nature.