Pieter Snyers

Peter Snyers self-portrait''Pieter Snyers or Peter Snijers''' (first name also written as: 'Peeter' and nickname 'De Heilige' or 'The Holy One') (30 March 1681 – 4 May 1752) was a Flemish art collector, painter, draughtsman and engraver. He practised a wide variety of genres, including portraits, genre painting, still life and landscape painting. His masterpiece is a series of 12 paintings, each representing a different month of the year.

Life Pieter Snyers was born in Antwerp as the son of well-off merchant Peter and his wife Anna de Decker. He studied under Alexander van Bredael in 1694. He was registered as a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1707.

Snyers died in Antwerp. His estate included a large collection of art works of major artists of the preceding century showing that he was well-off. His nephew and pupil Pieter Jan Snyers was heir to his considerable fortune.

Snyers was the teacher of his nephew Pieter Jan Snyers and Jacob Xavier Vermoelen.

Work Snyers was a versatile artist who painted in many genres including portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, still lifes, flower pieces, animal paintings, fruit pieces, game pieces, vegetable still lifes and plants. He painted both on large canvases and small copper plates. He was said never to have painted a composition twice. There is a reduced copy of the month of March in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

His still lifes include outdoor settings with dead game and forest floors and indoor compositions with a profusion of small objects, fruits, single blossoms, nuts and other objects scattered across a surface.

Snyers was also an engraver. The British Museum holds a charming portrait of a sleeping boy by Snyers. He also produced an etched self-portrait (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam).