Gillis (Egidius) Claeissens (1526 – 1605)

• Was a Flemish painter of portraits and altarpieces.
• Gillis Claeissens was born in Bruges as the second son of Pieter Claeissens the Elder and Marie Meese.
• His father was a history painter and portraitist and his grandfather Alard Claeissens was also a painter.
• Gillis had three younger brothers of whom Antoon and Pieter both became painters while a third brother Ambrosius was a master goldsmith.
• Gillis Claeissens was admitted as a master of the Guild of St Luke of Bruges on 18 October 1566.

• Gillis Claeissens was an advisor to the Guild of St Luke of Bruges in the guild years 1570–1571, 1572–1573 and 1584–1585.

• Claeissens married Elisabeth Boelandts.

• At the time of death of his wife in 1609 the couple was childless. • The artist did have an illegitimate son called Gillis Claeissens the Younger who enrolled in the Guild of St. Luke of Brussels on 20 February 1601.

• By 1589 Gillis Claeissens had moved to Brussels where he was nominated painter in title to the governor general of the Low Countries Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma.

• Until recently the corpus of Gillis Claeissens' work included no unsigned paintings and therefore his role as an artist was overshadowed by the more voluminous output of his father and brother.

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