Jan Cossiers

Jan Cossiers The happy drinker Oil on wood. 73.7 x 57 cm. Provenance Belgian private collection. The back of the panel bears the stamp of the Antwerp panel makers. A man pours himself a glass of wine from a jug and looks out of the picture with a smile. Jan Cossiers has staged the everyday theme of a cheerful drinker as a half-figure painting with effective lighting. Like many of his contemporaries, he follows in the tradition of the Caravaggists. Cossier's style is clearly recognizable in his typical flowing stroke, his treatment of the face and fingers and his preference for a brownish colour palette. Jan Cossiers painted a whole series of half-length portraits of cheerful drinkers, including two paintings of very similar dimensions, one of which is in the Academy in Vienna. Born in Antwerp, Jan Cossiers was a pupil of Cornelis de Vos. He later traveled to Italy via France, where he came under the influence of Caravaggism. On his return to Antwerp, he met the humanist Nicolas-Claude de Peiresc. The latter was a good friend of Rubens and advised him to employ Cossiers. Cossiers worked on Ruben's Torre de Parada series. After Rubens' death in 1640, Cossiers received mainly religious commissions for large paintings. He became one of the leading painters in Antwerp and developed into one of the most original colorists in 17th century Flanders. The versatile artist was a master of various genres. He painted portraits, genre and history paintings.