(Leiden 1556–1629 Brussels)
Madonna and Child,
oil on panel, 36.5 x 26 cm, framed

This charming Madonna and child is a characteristic work by Otto van Veen, who is nowadays primarily known as Rubens’ teacher. In fact, Veen was one of Antwerp’s most successful artists in that crucial timespan between the later Mannerism and early Baroque. Veen frequently collaborated with Antwerp colleagues and on many occasions provided very similar paintings of Madonna’s for the central medallions of flower garlands of the Brueghel family. Van Veen was born in Leiden around 1556. He travelled to Rome around 1574 or 1575, where he stayed for about five years, studying with Federico Zuccari. Carel van Mander relates that van Veen then worked at the courts of Rudolf II in Prague and William V of Bavaria in Munich, before returning to the Low Countries. In Brussels, he was court painter to the governor of the Southern Netherlands, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma until 1592. After becoming a master in the Guild of St. Luke in 1593, van Veen took numerous commissions for church decorations, including altarpieces for the Antwerp cathedral and a chapel in the city hall. He also organized his studio and workshop, which included Rubens. When Archduke Ernest of Austria became governor in 1594, he aided the archduke in acquiring important Netherlandish paintings by Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He later served as dean of the Guild of St. Luke, and the Romanists.

In the seventeenth century, van Veen often worked for the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, but never as their court painter. Later famous paintings include a series of twelve scenes with the battles of the Romans and the Batavians, based on engravings he had already published of the subject, for the Dutch States General.