Denis van Alsloot

'', with Hendrick de Clerck Van Alsloot was born in Mechelen or possibly Brussels. His father was a tapestry worker. It is not known who was his teacher. He is first recorded in official records when he joined the Brussels Guild of St Luke in 1599 as a tapestry designer. He also took his first pupil in 1599. He trained a further three apprentices between 1599 and 1625. Van Alsloot was exclusively working on the design of tapestries until 1606, the year in which he signed his first painting. Alsloot's career started to take off from the early 17th century after he was appointed court painter to Albert and Isabella, the governors of the Spanish Netherlands. He became a painter to the elite and served a clientele of princes, courtesans and influential state officials. He was still alive in 1626 as is testified by a painting dated in that year. He must have died in or before 1628 as two works he had left as inheritance to a niece were bought in 1628 by the Archduchess Isabella. ==Work==

Van Alsloot started out in the same profession as his father as a designer of cartoons for the local tapestry works in Brussels. In 1603 he designed a series of tapestries of Grotesques for the Archdukes. His painting career seems to have started around 1606. Van Alsloot painted topographically accurate as well as imaginary landscapes, including summer and winter landscapes. Like later landscape painters in Brussels such as Lucas Achtschellinck, Lodewijk de Vadder and Jacques d'Arthois, van Alsloot drew inspiration from the Sonian Forest near Brussels. Some of his works have an archaic feeling and appear inspired by landscape painting of the 16th century. The style of his landscape paintings shows an affinity with the work of Gillis van Coninxloo. In comparison to van Coninxloo, van Alsloot's work is calmer and more static, uses a softer palette and is more precise of touch and more realistic. As such his work appears to be a synthesis of the styles of van Coninxloo and Jan Brueghel the Elder. He was also commissioned by the court of Albert and Isabella to paint views of their estates at Mariemont and Tervuren and of the Abbey of Groenendael. Two of the six paintings of the Ommegang painted by van Alsloot are considered lost. Of the surviving works, two are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and two in the Prado Museum in Madrid. One of the paintings held in the Victoria and Albert Museum was split in two at an unknown date. An undivided copy of it made around 1635 is in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, while a copy of one of the halves is held by the Prado Museum. ==References==