A Life of Royal Commissions
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Gerard Rijsbrack was the son of the landscape painter Pieter Rijsbraeck and Geneviève Compagnon. After becoming a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp in 1725, he joined his brothers in England, including the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack and the painter Pieter Andreas. While his brother John Michael became a leading sculptor in England, Gerard's work during his English period lacks signatures or dates, suggesting he may have worked within the successful workshop of Pieter Andreas.
Rijsbrack eventually moved to Paris, where he became a successful painter under royal patronage. He received commissions to produce paintings for the menagerie at Versailles and created hunting scenes for the Chateau de la Muette. His work for Madame de Pompadour, intended for the Ermitage of Pompadour and the Palace of Versailles, was highly valued, earning him 4,460 pounds. He is said to have returned to Antwerp at the end of his life, where he died blind and impoverished.
Artistic Subjects and Style
Gerard Rijsbrack was a Flemish painter known primarily for his still lifes, game pieces, and hunting scenes, though he also painted mythological subjects. His compositions often displayed a documentary preoccupation with reality. For example, his work Fishing bird, swans and fish includes an inscription identifying the subject as a fishing bird found in May 1748 near Pontoise.
In his hunting scenes for Madame de Pompadour, such as those depicting a wolf hunt and a deer hunt, he remained close to the compositions of François Desportes and Jean-Baptiste Oudry. These paintings served to record the king's hounds; in the deer hunt, twelve dogs are depicted, and in the wolf hunt, thirteen are shown. Many of these dogs bear a specific mark—a triangle with a cross inside—resembling the old French Écu coins used to brand the royal pack.
