Jacob de Formentrou (1629 - after 1695)
• Was a Flemish Baroque painter.
• In the years 1640-1641 he is mentioned as a pupil in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
• He subsequently became a master of the Guild and was still registered as such in 1659.
• Only a few works by his hand are known today.
• These can all be classified as genre paintings, in particular paintings of merry companies and gallery pictures.
• De Formentrou's best known painting is the gallery painting referred to as Cabinet of pictures (also known as Art lovers in a painting cabinet), currently in the Royal Collection.
• It depicts a room full of pictures populated with human figures who are usually interpreted as representing art connoisseurs.
• The composition also includes portraits of
Rubens and van Dyck, the two eminent Antwerp artists of the previous generation.
