Antonín Arnošt Stevens of Steinfels (1608 c. 1675)

• Was a Flemish-Bohemian author of portraits and religious paintings, inventor of graphic sheets.
• He was active in Prague.

• He was the son of Pieter Stevens, a Flemish painter, who probably came to the court of Emperor Rudolf II in 1590.

• He made a study trip to Germany and Netherlands.

• Returned to Prague in 1635.

• His first clients were the Lesser Town Augustinians, hermits, on whose side right he bought a house. 

• He portrayed Emperor Ferdinand III.
• In 1640 he is documented in Vienna, where Prince Gundakar of Liechtenstein applied for his services. 
•  He painted altar canvases and cycle paintings for religious institutions in Prague.
• The large canvases on the main altars in the churches of Our Lady of the Snows in the New Town and St. Nicholas belong to the mature creative period. 
• In 1640 Antonín Stevens received the title of chamber painter from Emperor Ferdinand III.
• In 1643 he was ennobled by Count Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice and received the predicate of Steinfels, German von Steinfels.
• Antonín Stevens was married to Anna Marie Breglová, with whom he had a total of eight children.
• Two sons, Pavel Antonín Stevens and Jan Jakub Stevens of Steinfels, devoted themselves to the art of painting.

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