The Story
Frans Pourbus the Younger or Frans Pourbus (II) (Antwerp, 1569 – Paris, 1622) was a Flemish painter, specialised in portrait painting. He was the third generation of a prominent family of religious and portrait painters. Pourbus was a successful court painter for, successively, the Archdukes in Brussels, the Gonzaga Duke of Mantua (1600–1609), and then the French court. The majority of his work was royal portraits, many full-length, but he also painted some altarpieces.
He painted the Brussels-based Spanish Regents of the Netherlands, the Duke of Mantua and Marie de' Medici, Queen of France. Pourbus produced portraits that were pleasing to his patrons, but somewhat static with no dramatic situations, or landscape backgrounds. He is noted for his depiction of costume, jewellery and draperies, as in his portrait of Henry IV of France (below).
Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 99.7 × 77.5 cm (39 1/4 × 30 1/2 in.); Framed: 140.3 × 119.4 × 10.2 cm (55 1/4 × 47 × 4 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Frans Pourbus the Younger builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
