Philip Fruytiers Antwerp 1610-1666

Jonson Collection, Sweden, 1926;
Anonymous sale, Bukowski, Stockholm, 1930;
Consul General Harry Ighussons, Sweden (as anonymous);
With Galerie Rudolf Beckers, Dusseldorf, 1965 (as Sir Anthony van Dijck);
Private collection, Germany, by 1965.

This sketch is a modello for a large scale canvas of the same subject in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (inv. no.166), signed in monogram PHF (correctly identified by Frans Baudouin to be the monogram of Philip Fruytiers; see Literature, p. 154, reproduced p. 153, fig. 2). In his article, Baudouin rediscovered Fruytiers, long known only as a painter of portrait miniatures, as a painter on large scale format.  In his own day, his reputation as a figure painter was well established, as Cornelis de Bie's appraisal of him in 1661 makes clear: ‘seer vast gheteeckent en near ‘t leven wel gestalt, vol vreemde vindinghen, heel gheestich uytgebelt’  (C. de Bie, Het Gulden Cabinet vande edele vry Schilder-Const…, Antwerp 1661, p. 389).

The painting in Antwerp is part of a series of three paintings by Fruytiers painted for the church of the convent of the Franciscan Friars Recollect, which now houses the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten. The other two paintings, also now housed in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp are: St. Francis of Assisi, monogrammed, and St James holding the poisoned chalice. A further painting with rounded top also was made for the same church: The apotheosis of St. Anthony of Padua, monogrammed and dated 1652 (inv. nos. 164, 165, 167). This last painting is also mentioned in a contract dated 1649. It seems therefore likely that the other paintings and the present oil sketch can be dated around the same time.

Baudouin detects a few variations between the sketch and the executed canvas of St Louis as a Crusader, most importantly the order worn by the King: in the sketch it is the French Order of the Holy Spirit; while in the painting this has been changed into the Order of Jerusalem. The commissioner must have requested this change, wishing to identify Louis in terms more directly related to the counter Reformation: as a saint and crusader, requesting heavenly support; rather than in his more familiar representation as the King of France. King Louis IX of France (1214-1270) was canonized in 1297, only 27 years after his death.