Biography

Frans Pourbus was the son of the painter Pieter Pourbus, who was possibly his earliest teacher. By 1564 he had entered the studio of Frans Floris in Antwerp. Floris was heavily influenced by his travels in Italy, especially by the boldness and energy of the pictures he saw by artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael. Pourbus picked up this aspect of Floris’s style in his own paintings. He was mainly a painter of portraits and religious subjects, and most of his patrons were wealthy aristocrats. Around 1570 he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. His son, also named Frans, became an artist like his father. He, too, painted portraits and subsequently worked for some of the most illustrious courts in Europe, including that of Marie de Médicis of France.