SIMONS Jan Frans
DE FRETTERS FURETEURS
Oil on canvas: 110 x 160 cm / 43.3 x 63 in
Signed and situated 'Brasschaat' lower left; title on the label: "De fretters fureteurs"
Painter of portraits, figures, landscapes and still lifes; etcher.
Jan Frans Simons was a pupil of Eugène Joors at the Antwerp School of Art. He also took private lessons with Rumpels. He painted in and around Brasschaat where he lived as a young boy with his parents. He participated in many exhibitions in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany. In 1879 he exhibited his first painting in Antwerp.
Simons is an artist of solid composition, racy colors and sincere and graceful talent.
The man with the hat and the backpack with painting supplies in the background represents the painter Jan Frans Simons himself.
On the label of the painting appears a partly erased title which could be a bilingual play of words: “De fretters browseteurs”.
Period:
Antwerp 1855 – Brasschaat 1919
Belgian School
Exhibitions:
Antwerp - Tournai
Literature:
P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 590-591.
