Vos, Cornelis de

Vos, Cornelis de (1584?–1651). Flemish painter, active in Antwerp. He painted historical, allegorical, mythological, and religious works, but excelled chiefly as a portraitist. His finest paintings are his portraits of children, which have great sensitivity and charm without lapsing into sentimentality. A splendid self-portrait of The Artist with his Family (1621, Mus. Royaux, Brussels) shows him looking happy and proud with his own children. In style he was close to Rubens and van Dyck but more down to earth (his sitters were typically solid members of the bourgeoisie rather than aristocrats or intellectuals). His brother Paul de Vos (1595?–1678) painted hunting scenes and still lifes in the style of Frans Snyders, who was the brother-in-law of the de Vos brothers. In 1637 all three helped Rubens execute pictures for the Torre de la Parada, Philip IV of Spain's (see Habsburg) hunting-lodge near Madrid.