Frans Boels (1555–1596)

• Was a Flemish painter and draftsman.
• He was born in Mechelen.
• Boels was a pupil and stepson of Hans Bol.
• He was active in Antwerp between 1572 and 1584 and then moved to Amsterdam where he is recorded from 1584 to 1596.
• He probably left with his stepfather Hans Bol who fled the Southern Netherlands for religious reasons.
• In 1593 the Dutch engraver Hendrik Goltzius made a portrait of Hans Bol which he dedicated as a token of friendship to Bol's stepson Frans Boels.

• Frans Boels' known oeuvre is limited.

• It consists of two dozen works, a majority of them in small format and executed in gouache.

• The early biographer Karel van Mander mentions in his Schilder-boeck of 1604 that Frans Boels was good at drawing miniature landscapes.

• Frans Boels' favorite subjects were Biblical or mythological scenes or hunting parties. 

• In 1588 Frans Boels created various landscapes entitled Mountainous landscape with mythological figures.

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