Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (1625/1629 – after 1675), was a Flemish painter who was active in the Spanish Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden in the second half of the seventeenth century.Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts at the Netherlands Institute for Art History He was a court painter to the Danish royal family. He specialised in trompe-l'œil still lifes, an artistic genre which uses visual tricks to give viewers the illusion that they are not looking at a painting but rather at real three-dimensional objects. He also created many vanitas still lifes.Liza Kaaring, C.N. Gijsbrechts i Kunsthistorier
Life Details about the life of Gijsbrechts are scarce. It is not known with certainty where and when he was born. His activities in the final years of his life are also undocumented. His name is not mentioned in the contemporary art historical literature. It is assumed that he was born sometime between 1625 and 1629 in Antwerp. He married Anna Moons on 26 April 1648 in the St. James' Church in Antwerp. Their eldest son Franciscus was baptised in the same church on 25 February 1649.
On 16 November 1659, Gijsbrechts joined the Sodaliteit van de bejaerde jongmans ('Sodality of Elderly Bachelors'), a fraternity for bachelors established by the Jesuit order. Between 18 September 1659 and 18 September 1660 he was registered as a 'wijnmeester' (i. i.e. son of a master) in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp.
His earliest known painting, the Vanitas still life with a young Moor presenting a pocket watch (at Ader Paris on 9 April 1990, lot 61) is dated 1657. In the early 1660s he was probably in Germany where he spent time, among other places, in Regensburg. Some art historians believe that he may have been in Emperor Leopold I's service in Regensburg, even though no records to prove such relationship have yet been found. It is assumed that Gijsbrechts moved in 1664 or 1665 to Hamburg where he stayed for a few years. In Hamburg he may have been in contact with the painter Georg Hainz, who had connections to the Danish court. This may have led to an introduction, since from 1668 to 1672 he worked as a court painter in Copenhagen. He had his studio in the Royal Garden by Rosenborg Castle and from 1670 he called himself court painter.
His most prolific period as a painter falls in the short period of his stay at the court of the Danish kings Frederick III from 1668 to 1670, and thereafter Christian V from 1670 to 1672. The bulk of his known artistic output was created during this period. In the period from 1670 to 1672 he received payment for several paintings, including paintings for Rosenborg Castle. In contemporary court records he is referred to as 'dend brabandskemaler' and 'Gisbrecht brabanske maler' (the painter from Brabant). These records confirm his Flemish roots. Most of the 22 paintings Gijsbrechts painted in Copenhagen were for the King's Perspective Chamber which was part of the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities. The Perspective Chamber displayed a selection of trompe l’oeil works, perspective boxes and architectural paintings made from the central perspective. Art historian Eva de la Fuente sees in the Perspective Chamber a symbolic representation of a "worldview with the autocratic king at the centre. He is the one who dominates and understands the hidden context of things in the world. Dressed in appropriate martial virtues, he appears as a collector of the marvellous creations of art and nature". An inventory from 1690 records that 15 of the 29 paintings in the Perspective Chamber were made by Gijsbrechts.
After leaving Copenhagen, he is believed to have been in Stockholm, where in 1673 he painted a large letter rack commissioned by the bourgeoisie of the town. He likely also worked for the Swedish king.J. Roding, 'Tekst en beeld in het trompe-l'oeil van Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts: de 'perspectiefkamer' van Frederik III en Christiaan V van Denemarken uit de periode 16681-1672', in: K. Bostoen e.a. (red.), 'Tweelinge eener dragt'. Woord en beeld in de Nederlanden (1500-1750), Hilversum 2001 (= De zeventiende eeuw 17, 2001), p. 275-297
In 1675 he is recorded in Breslau (Wrocław). From this year dates his last known work. No firm records of him after this time exist. Possibly he resided in Bruges in Flanders after this time. A painting with the inscription 'A monsieur/ Monsieur Gijsbrechts/ schilder geghenwoordig/ tot Brughe', auctioned on 14 December 2010 could possibly refer to him. However, the painting is generally dated to the period from 1664 to 1668, i.e. prior to his stay in Scandinavia.Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Trompe L'oeil of a studio wall with a vanitas still life, portrait miniatures and art supplies, 1664-1668 at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
It is not known when or where he died.
Work General
Approximately 70 works by Gijsbrechts are known. Gijsbrechts was a painter of still lifes. He almost exclusively painted trompe-l'œil and vanitas paintings which were popular around the second half of the 17th century. Early in his career he produced pure vanitas paintings later switching to trompe l'oeil paintings from the mid-1660s.
Of the 22 trompe l'oeil paintings he painted during his stay in Copenhagen, 19 are in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, two at Rosenborg Castle and one at the Museum of National History in Frederiksborg Castle. Some of the objects which he depicted with such precision in his still lifes can still be seen in Danish museums today. Because of his accurate recording of everyday objects, pieces of arts and crafts, musical instruments, scientific instruments, weapons or other hunting equipment of his time, his paintings are a valuable source for historians.
As his son Franciscus painted the same subjects in a style close to that of his father, it has sometimes been difficult to establish the authorship of certain works. Some attributions are disputed.Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Trompe l'oeil with musical instruments, 1672 at the Netherlands Institute for Art History It is generally believed that the father's style is more Baroque and his brushwork softer and more fluid than that of his son.P. Gammelbo, 'Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts og Franciskus Gijsbrechts', Kunstmuseets Årsskrift 39-42 (1952-1955), pp. 125-156
Vanitas His earliest known painting is the Vanitas still life with a young Moor presenting a pocket watch (at Ader (Paris) 9 April 1990, lot 61) which is dated 1657.Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Vanitas still life with a young Moor presenting a pocket watch, 1657 at the Netherlands Institute for Art History This painting falls within the genre of the vanitas still life, which Gijsbrechts practised principally until the later 1660s. This genre of still life offers a reflection on the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transience of all earthly goods and pursuits. The term vanitas is derived from the famous line 'Vanitas, Vanitas. Et omnia Vanitas', in the book of the Ecclesiastes in the bible, which in the King James Version is translated as . The worldview behind the vanitas paintings was a Christian understanding of the world as a temporary place of fleeting joys and sorrows from which humanity could only escape through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.
This worldview is conveyed in these still lifes through the use of stock symbols that refer to the transience of things and, in particular, the futility of earthly wealth: a skull, soap bubbles, candles, empty glasses, wilting flowers, insects, smoke, clocks, mirrors, books, hourglasses and musical instruments, various expensive or exclusive objects such as jewellery and rare shells and globes. While most of these symbols refer to earthly existence (books, scientific instruments, etc.) and pleasures (a pipe) or the transience of life and death (skulls, soap bubbles, empty shells), some of the symbols used in the vanitas paintings carry a double meaning: a rose or a stalk of grain refers as much to the brevity of life as it is a symbol of Christ's resurrection, and thus eternal life.Koozin, Kristine (1990). The Vanitas Still Lifes of Harmen Steenwyck: Metaphoric Realism. Renaissance studies. Edwin Mellen Press. S. vi-vii.
In Trompe l'oeil with studio wall and vanitas still life (1668, Statens Museum for Kunst) Gijsbrechts presents a virtual inventory of seventeenth-century symbols of transience: the skull with the ears of corn, the hourglass, the extinguished candle, the soap bubble and artist paraphernalia.Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Trompe l'oeil with studio wall and vanitas still life, website of the Statens Museum for Kunst It contains two miniature portraits and one empty slot for another. The top left portrait is of Emperor Leopold I. The other portrait is not a self-portrait and it is not clear who it represents. The portraits allude to the mortality the deceased, even while glorifying him, within a spiritual and traditional vanitas iconography.Rukshana Edwards, Portraits as Objects within Seventeenth-Century Dutch Vanitas Still Life, 1 December 2015, University of Amsterdam Graduate school of Humanities, Faculty of Humanities The painting also includes the painter's "calling card" in the form of a note bearing the words "A Monsuer / Monsuer Cornelius Norbertus / Gijsbrechts Conterfeÿer ggl. In. / Coppenhagen." By painting the upper right corner of the canvas as if it had become detached from its support, he points to the fact that even the canvas of the painting (and thus the fame of the painter) cannot withstand the relentless progression of time and its destructive force. In this way, the artist fused his trompe l'oeil technique with the vanitas subject.
Trompe l'oeil In the 1660s, Gijsbrechts abandoned the pure vanitas still life paintings by integrating the vanitas motifs into increasingly complex trompe l'oeil compositions, which depict studio walls, letter racks (the notice boards of the era), board walls with hunting implements and musical instruments and "chantournés" (cut-outs). The latter took the deception of the eye one step further, as the painted panel or canvas was cut in a shape intended to fool viewers into believing that they were standing in front of a three-dimensional object. For the illusion to be even more convincing, Gijsbrechts primarily painted motifs and objects naturally found in the surroundings of the royal family, and he painted these as close to the natural sizes as possible. A series of these Kunstkammer inventories was created especially for the art-loving King Frederik III. For the king's successor, Christian V, who loved hunting more than art, Gijsbrechts painted various hunting trompe-l'œil paintings and two pictures showing the gear for hounding and falconry.