Pieter Thijs Antwerp 1624 (?) - 1677

Sir Alleyne Alfred Boxall (d.1927);
Thence by descent to his son Sir Alleyne Percival Boxall (1882-1945);
Gifted in 1927 to Leopold Guy Francis Maynard Greville, 6th Earl of Warwick (1882-1928), Warwick Castle;
Thence by family descent until 1978, when purchased by the present owner.

Pieter Thijs’ large-scale family portraits, for the most part dating from the 1650s and '60s, and usually unsigned, are among the most successful examples of the legacy of Van Dyck in portraiture in The Netherlands in the second half of the 17th Century.

We are most grateful to Dr. Hans Vlieghe for confirming the attribution of this portrait to Pieter Thijs, and for pointing out that the same as yet unknown family was painted by Gonzales Coques, in a group portrait on the terrace of a country house, with a capriccio of the Antwerp cathedral of Onze Lieve Vrouw beyond, now in a Belgian private collection (see fig. 1).¹  Both portraits show the family engaged in Christian acts of charity - giving bread and clothing to the poor and infirm.  It is thus very likely that the husband was an Aalmoezenier (Almoner) of the city of Antwerp who, with other wealthy townsmen, took care of the feeding and clothing of the poor of the city.  Coques’ portrait shows the three children at a slightly younger age, and was probably painted two to four years earlier than the Warwick picture.  On grounds of style and costume, both pictures may plausibly be dated to the 1660s, with the present picture perhaps dating from the end of the decade.²

There is a painted study of the son who is positioned second from the right, last recorded in the Limburg Stirum collection (see fig. 2).  While its traditional attribution to Ykens is not implausible, it is much more likely that it too is by Thijs, and made in connection with the Warwick portrait group.

This group portrait hung until very recently in the Great Hall at Warwick Castle.  Sir Walter Scott described Warwick Castle as "the fairest monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remains uninjured by time".  While other great medieval strongholds like Alnwick, Arundel and Windsor were transformed in appearance during the 19th Century, Warwick's feudal air is authentic. "Its aspect is the most severe, its courtyard the most sombre, its hall the most enormous, its furniture the most Gothic and its style the most perfect you can imagine" wrote the Duchesse de Dino in 1834.³

1. The painting is discussed in greater detail by K. van der Stighelen, under Literature.
2. Kathelijne van der Stighelen (op. cit.) dates the Gonzales Coques portrait to circa 1660-70, but dates the Warwick picture to circa 1670.
3. Both Sir Walter Scott and the Duchesse de Dino are quoted by M. Binney, in Country Life, 2nd December and 9th December 1982, pp. 1746 and 1882.