Pieter Casteels III (1684–1749)

• Was a Flemish painter and engraver.
• Pieter Casteels III was born in Antwerp.
• He was the son of Elisabeth Bosschaert and Pieter Casteels II, a painter of landscapes and history paintings.
• He trained with his father.
• In 1708 he left with Peter Tillemans to England to work for a picture dealer for whom they made copies of Old Master paintings.
• Casteels subscribed to the Kneller Academy of Painting and Drawing in 1711.
• He returned briefly to Antwerp in 1712 where he became a member of the local Guild of Saint Luke in the same year.
• Casteels settled permanently in England around 1717.
• He developed a successful practice as a painter of flowers and exotic birds.
• He worked simultaneously as an art dealer and imported paintings from Europe.
• In 1726 Casteels launched a subscription for a set of 12 prints of birds, which he had etched after his own designs.
• In May 1735 he retired from painting and spent his last fourteen years working for a calico manufacturer as a residential artist, first at Martin Abbey near Tooting, Surrey, and later, briefly, in Richmond, London.

• He died on 16 May 1749 in Richmond after a long illness.

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