Peter Tillemans

Peter Tillemans, engraving by T. Chambers after Hissings's portrait Peter Tillemans ( 1684 – 5 December 1734) was a Flemish painter, best known for his works on sporting and topographical subjects. Alongside John Wootton and James Seymour, Tillemans was one of the founders of the English school of sporting painting.

Tillemans died in England in 1734, having resided there since 1708.

Life

Tillemans was born in Antwerp in 1684, the son of a diamond-cutter, and studied painting there under various masters. As he was the brother-in-law of another Flemish painter, Pieter Casteels, it is assumed that he married before leaving Antwerp. Like other artists from the Low Countries such as Dirk Maas, Jan Wyck and Willem van de Velde the Younger, Tillemans moved to England. In Tillemans's case he moved in 1708, induced to do so by a picture-dealer called Turner: he spent the rest of his life working there.

In his Sportsmen in a Landscape (1971), Aubrey Noakes offers this description of Tillemans: quote|If we may judge from his success Tillemans was a socially agreeable and charming man. A portrait of him reveals that he was a gentle, friendly-looking fellow, with long curling hair, presumably his own and not a wig, such as was commonly worn by members of the upper and professional classes in the late eighteenth century. He died at the house of Cox Macro (1683–1767, later chaplain to George II) in Little Haugh Hall, in Suffolk, on 5 December 1734 (the previous day he "had been busy on a horse portrait") Macro had a bust of Tillemans made by John Michael Rysbrack, placing it "in a niche at the top of a staircase in Little Haugh Hall".

Painting Early works Tillemans was brought to England in 1708 by "Turner, a picture dealer"; his first works were copies of battle scenes made for Turner, particularly of the works of Jacques Courtois, He enjoyed much success imitating the style and execution of David Teniers. That year he also painted Macro in the background of The Artist's Studio (c. 1716), a self-portrait, with a pupil and Cox Macro, surrounded in the studio by paintings. eponymous painting of the Battle of Glen Shiel in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, painted in the same year as the battle, was originally catalogued as The Battle of Killiecrankie 1689. and it is from the works painted over these years that he chiefly derives his fame. thumb Three Hounds with Horsemen, a Hunt to the LeftDuring the early 1720s, Tillemans moved successfully into the field of painting dogs, horses and racing scenes and was one of the earliest painters of sporting scenes in England; four of these works, "engraved by Claude du Bosc and published in 1723, are among the most spectacular early sporting prints in England". their paintings "show the first marriage of the topographical tradition of landscape with a sporting element". or John Robartes, later 4th Earl of Radnor. The Artist's Studio, c. 1716, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery The Battle of Belgrade, Chirk Castle Bird's eye view of Clevedon Court, Clevedon Court Charge de cavalerie Chester and the Roodee, Grosvenor Museum, Chester Dead game, Audley End House Figures in a landscape, Harris Museum Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore, Belton House Little Haugh Hall, Suffolk, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery Park Landscape (watercolour (brown), pen and ink (brown) on paper), Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery Portrait of Master Edward and Miss Mary Macro, the children of Revd Dr Cox Macro, c. 1733, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery Prospect Of Ashburnham Place Sussex A Prospect of the Town of Stanford, from Parsons Cross (coloured engraving), 1719, Government Art Collection The Round Course or Plate Course, with diverse Jockeys and Horses in Different Actions and Postures, going to Start for the King's Plate at Newmarket (engraving and etching), Government Art Collection The South Garden at Wrest Park, the Seat in the Duchess's Square, c. 1729–30 Spruce and bell, Newstead Abbey