Paul Vredeman de Vries

Paul Vredeman de Vries (Antwerp, 1567 – Amsterdam, 1617), was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who specialised in architectural paintings and, in particular, church interiors.

Life He was a son of the Dutch-born architect, painter and engineer Hans Vredeman de Vries who at the time was working in the Southern Netherlands. In 1564 his father had fled to Antwerp from Mechelen, where he had been living in order to escape the Inquisition. He trained with his father who was as a painter interested in perspective and therefore painted mainly architectural paintings.

He is known to have collaborated with his father in the completion of large assignments. He worked from 1592 to 1595 in Danzig where his father was employed in the design of defensive works. He was active in Amsterdam from 1599 to 1617. There is a record of a notice of marriage between him and Mayken Godelet issued in Amsterdam and dated 24 April 1601. In 1649 she was buried in Nieuwe Kerk. The year her husband died is uncertain; it could be 1630 when his designs for furniture were published or later, but before 1636.

He was the master of Hendrick Aerts and Isaak van den Blocke, both artists of Flemish descent who were living in Gdansk. His older brother Salomon Vredeman de Vries (1556–1604) was also an architectural draughtsmen and painter who collaborated with him and his father.

He collaborated with his father on large assignments as well as with other artists such as Frans Francken the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn (while in Prague), Pieter-Franz Isaaksz and Adriaen van Nieulandt (in Amsterdam). These designs for beds, buffets, cabinets and interior porches in Louis XIII-style would influence Dutch interior design well into the second half of the 17th century.