Peter van Halen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Van Halen was born in Antwerp on 9 April 1612 as the son of Peter van Halen (died 23 December 1637) and Catharina Thuys (died 20 January 1642). His father was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a dealer.[4] Peter the younger was admitted as a master in the Guild in the Guild year 1640–1641 in the capacity of a 'wijnmeester'. i.e. the son of a master.[5]
He married Maria Bock or Bocx (died 1680) on 9 April 1644 in Baesrode (near Dendermonde), "without losing his civic rights", i.e. he was granted dispensation from the rule that deemed citizens from Antwerp to have renounced their citizenship when contracting marriage outside of the city.[5] He was elected dean of the Guild of St. Luke in 1650.[6]
He must have enjoyed patronage at the highest levels as an Ecce Homo by his hand was inventoried in 1659 as the property of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands. The Antwerp art dealers Forchondt sold a Sleeping Diana by van Halen to Prince Karl of Liechtenstein in 1670 and sold numerous of his works to patrons in Vienna in 1673, 1674 and 1676.[2]
He was buried on 22 May 1687 in the Church of Our Lady of the Minorites in Antwerp.[5]
