Pieter van Avont

Pieter van Avont or Peter van Avont, (1600–1652) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and printmaker known for his religious scenes and cabinet paintings often including nude children and putti. Van Avont was a frequent collaborator with many leading painters in Antwerp.

Life Pieter van Avont was baptized on 14 January 1600 in Mechelen His parents were the sculptor Hans van Avont and Anna le Febure.

It is not known with which master he studied but it is believed he received his first training from his father. He was accepted as a master of the guild of Mechelen in 1620. He moved to Antwerp two years later. Frans Wouters' brother Pieter was van Avont's pupil in 1631–32. The genre of garland paintings was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally. The genre was initially connected to the visual imagery of the Counter-Reformation movement. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. Jan Brueghel the Younger and Pieter van Avont painted together The Virgin and Child in a Cartouche with Flowers. Pieter van Avont painted the figures.

He painted landscapes himself. Evidence for this is that a pair of landscapes by van Avont was listed in an Antwerp estate in 1676. While the work Flora in a Garden with Flowers and Trees (Kunsthistorisches Museum) was referred to in the 19th century as co-signed by van Avont and Jan Brueghel the Younger, it is now believed that van Avont also painted the landscape which had been attributed to Brueghel.

Van Avont was also a printmaker and etched several plates with scenes of angels and putti.

Selected works Flora in a Garden with Flowers and Trees, with Jan Brueghel the Elder, oil on copper, 70 × 47 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Vienna, Austria Holy Family in a Flower and Fruit Garland with Jan Brueghel the Elder, c. 1623, oil on panel, 93,5 × 72 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany Deposition from the Cross after Rubens 1641, Sint-Gertrudiskerk Vorst-Laakdal, oil on canvas, 177 x 144 cm. The Assumption of Mary 1642, Sint-Gertrudiskerk Vorst-Laakdal, oil on canvas, 174 x 133 cm.