Image Not Available
for Alexander Keirincx
Alexander Keirincx
Flemish, 1600 - 1652
Flemish painter. He was the son of Matthijs Keirinckx and Anna Masson. In 1619 he became a master in Antwerp’s Guild of St Luke, he married Clara Matthausen on 18 June 1622, and in 1624 he took on Artus Verhoeven as an apprentice. From 1636 onwards he is regularly recorded in Amsterdam, where he was registered as a citizen in the year of his death. He visited Great Britain, possibly in 1625 (Walpole mentions two signed and dated drawings of London views from this year) and definitely in 1640–41, when he undertook commissions from King Charles I to paint views of royal castles and palaces. His collaboration with Cornelis van Poelenburch suggests that he also spent some time in Utrecht.
His numerous surviving signed and dated paintings make it possible to chart his stylistic evolution. His earliest works, often featuring a wooded landscape with a lake, river or sandy road (e.g. Forest Landscape with River, 1620; Dresden, Gemäldegal. Alte Meister), are clearly related to similar paintings by Gillis van Coninxloo, Jan Breughel I and David Vinckboons. The foreground is occupied by several large trees, the centre shows a river or road and the background is closed off by a screen of foliage. These compositions demonstrate a skilful use of colour, with brown and green the dominant tones, and an eye for picturesque detail. A number of landscapes made c. 1630, such as the Forest Landscape with Hunters (1630; Rotterdam, Mus. Boymans–van Beuningen), have a nervous rhythm that could be characterized as Baroque. Their restrained colour scheme (grey, green and brown) is enlivened by sharp contrasts of light and shade. Gradually these dramatic Baroque qualities were abandoned in favour of a calmer style of landscape (e.g. the Temptation of Christ; Munich, Alte Pin.) with simpler compositions and evenly graduated perspective receding to a low horizon. He often relied on assistants for painting the figures, van Poelenburch in the case of the Arcadian Landscape (1633; Bremen, Ksthalle), which they both signed. Other collaborators were Paulus van Hillegaert (1595/6–1640), Bartholomeus Breenbergh and Jan van Kessel.
Hans Devisscher. "Keirinckx, Alexander." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T046168 (accessed March 8, 2012).
Person TypeIndividual
Italian, c. 1610 - 1665
