- NameAdam Frans van der Meulen
- Sexmale
- Nationality/DatesFlemish, born 1632, dead 1690
BiographyAdam Frans van der Meulen was the brother of
the painter Pieter van der Meulen with whom he collaborated
for some time. Adam Frans van der Meulen
painted landscapes, genre painting and battle scenes.
He was a pupil of Peter Snayers in Brussels and became
a member of the city’s guild of painters in 1648. In 1664
he settled down in Paris, where he collaborated with
Charles Lebrun in the work on a suite of pictures of the
life of the French king. Van der Meulen was widely
acclaimed at the French court for the hundreds of preliminary
drawings and paintings he executed for this
suite. He also collaborated for some time with his fellow-
countryman Adam Frans Boudewyns before
returning to Brussels. In 1673 he became a member of
the academy and in the following year the teacher of
Jean Baptiste Martin and Sauveur Le Comte. While
accompanying the king, Van der Meulen took the
opportunity to sketch topographical scenes, military
manoeuvres and battles and he later used these drawings
in Paris as the basis of major paintings and tapestries.
Replicas and copies of his paintings were later made by
Jean-Baptiste Martin, Dominicus Nollet, Jean Scotin
and other artists for other royal palaces and for the private
market. Some of his paintings were engraved by
Adam Frans Boudewyns, R. F. Bonart and J. A. Huchtenburg.
Van der Meulen’s battle scenes were inspired by
Peter Snayers while his landscapes show the influence
of Jacques d’Arthois. During his career in France he
introduced a type of panoramic landscape with a wealth
of detail and precise topography. Van der Meulen had
many successors, among them Jean-Baptiste Martin,
Jean Scotin, Henri Testelin and Sylvain Bonnet.