Abel Grimmer Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Abel Grimmer learned to paint from his father, the landscape painter Jacob Grimmer. His father had made a name for himself by emulating the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder on little panel paintings and offering these at low prices and he taught these marketing tricks to his son. He became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1592 and took over his father's workshop, never moving from Antwerp.

His work has been dismissed because of this simplification and its dependence on the work of others. Yet, it is this exact mix that empowered him to get by in the busy Antwerp commercial art market. He figured out how to be so productive in light of the fact that he had streamlined his system, this stylized way of painting the established landscape formulas allowed him to make these works almost as inexpensive and numerous as prints.

Abel Grimmer interest in perspective and the use of a golden light anticipate the work of the Dutch painter of church interiors Pieter Saenredam. His paintings of interior views, such as A Ballroom in Renaissance Style and Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary show Abel's interest in depicting interior space.

A favorite theme of Abel Grimmer was the Tower of Babel of which he produced a few renditions, inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder's paintings of the same subject. Abel Grimmer's works were vital in the development towards more naturalism in Flemish landscape painting.

Art Movement: Northern Renaissance.
Artists Influencing Abel Grimmer: Jacob Grimmer, Hans Bol.
Painters Abel Grimmer Influenced: Pieter Saenredam.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.