Bonaventura Peeters

BONAVENTURA PEETERS (Antwerp, 1614-1652).
"Marina".
Oil on panel.
Measurements: 56 x 45 cm; 71 x 60 cm (frame).
Signed with monogram on the floating board, in the center below.

Bonaventura Peeters (Antwerp, July 23, 1614-Hoboken (Antwerp), July 25, 1652) was a Flemish Baroque painter. His oil painting belongs to the Flemish School of Painting of the 17th century. He specialized in painting seascapes and shipwrecks, known as Zeekens (small seascapes). Peeters, brother of Gilis and Jan Peeters I, learned to paint with his father, who became master of the guild of St. Luke in Antwerp in 1607-1608. His earliest works relate to the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting. However later paintings reflect the stronger colors of Italianate classicism. This shift follows the general changes in artistic style of the time. Like his brother Jan, dramatic shipwrecks with puffy dark clouds form a significant part of his work. As do serene harbors and "portraits" of ships. Also, many of Peeters' paintings reflect actual locations so he may have traveled along the coast of Scandinavia. But his many views of ports in the far Mediterranean and the Near East reflect a growing taste for the exotic. They are probably inspired by ancient engravings as well as being the fruit of fantasy. This tradition developed simultaneously in Flemish and Dutch Baroque painting that worked both in Antwerp and in the United Provinces.