Gillis van Tilborch was a Flemish Baroque painter who specialised in group portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

s and both "low-life" and elegant genre painting

Genre painting

Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or...

s. He possibly studied under David Teniers the Younger

David Teniers the Younger

David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist born in Antwerp, the son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV were also painters...

, and joined the Brussels painters' guild in 1654. HIs portraits of bourgeois sitters are similar to those of Gonzales Coques. He also painted gallery pictures, such as the Interior of a Picture Gallery with the Artist and His Patrons (c. 1660–70, oil on canvas, 38 1/4 X 51 inches, 97.2 x 129.5 cm, Spencer Museum of Art

Spencer Museum of Art

The Spencer Museum of Art, or SMA, is an art museum on the campus of University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. While admission is free, donations are accepted. Also located inside the Spencer Museum of Art are the Kress Foundation Department of Art History, and the Murphy Library of Art &...

, University of Kansas

University of Kansas

The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

, Lawrence

Lawrence, Kansas

Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...

),http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/collection/europeanamerican/tilborch.shtml that reflect the relationship between artists and patrons in the seventeenth century. The series documenting works held at Tervuren

Tervuren

Tervuren is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636...

 castle, where he was appointed keeper of the collection in 1666, are more extensive examples of the same trend in painting. He was in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 around 1670–1671, where he painted The Tichborne Dole

Tichborne Dole

The Tichborne Dole is a traditional English festival of charity which is held in the village of Tichborne, Hampshire, during the Feast of the Annunciation...

(1671).

"La Rencontre" probablement exécuté par Gillis van Tilborch, se trouve parmi la collection du Musée Jeanne d'Aboville de La Fère, dans l'Aisne.

Sources

• L. J. Wassink, "Tilborgh, Gillis van," Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
  
  , [9 November 2007].
• Hans Vlieghe (1998). Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07038-1