Adam Frans van der Meulen

Variant namesprimary name: Adam Frans van der Meulen

DatesBiographical dates: 1632 - 1690 Dead: dead 1690 Born: born 1632

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BiographyBiography: Adam 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.

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