Peter Snijers (1681–1752)

• Also known as Pieter Snyers.
• Was a Flemish art collector, painter, draughtsman and engraver. • Pieter Snyers was born in Antwerp as the son of well-off merchant Peter and his wife Anna de Decker.
• He studied under Alexander van Bredael in 1694.
• He was registered as a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1707.
• He is reported to have resided in London in the period from 1720 to 1726.

• The artist who principally painted portraits of priests or monks, led such a calm and pious lifestyle that he was given the nickname De Heilige or The Holy One.

• He married Maria Catharina van der Boven, the daughter of a lawyer, in 1726.

• This marriage produced no issue. 

• He was successful as an artist, and able to buy a house on the prestigious Meir in Antwerp and assemble a large collection of Flemish and Dutch masters there.

 • He entered on 17 August 1741 into an agreement with five other artists to provide free tuition as the directors of the Antwerp Academy.

• Snyers died in Antwerp. 

• Snyers was the teacher of his nephew Pieter Jan Snyers and Jacob Xavier Vermoelen.

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