acques d' Arthois
(Brussels 1613 - Brussels 1686)
An Extensive Wooded Landscape with Travellers on a Path
Biography
D'Arthois was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and collector, and was one of the leading figures of the Brussels landscape school of the second half on the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed to Jan Mertens in 1625 and became a master in the Brussels painters’ guild in 1634. In 1636 he married Marie Sampels, with whom he had eight children. Besides his son Jan Baptist d’Arthois, and his brother Nicolaes d’Arthois, Jacques is known to have had at least six pupils. In 1655 he was made chartered tapestry cartoon designer of the city of Brussels, and when he died in 1686 he owned several houses and a substantial painting collection, though his lavish lifestyle had left him severely in debt.