GRIMMER, Abel
(b. ca. 1570, Antwerpen, d. ca. 1619, Antwerpen)

Biography

Flemish painter, son of Jacob Grimmer. He studied with his father in Antwerp, then in 1592 he was accepted as Master of the Guild of the Painters of Saint Luke.

He was the specialist of series devoted to the Four Seasons and Twelve Months, which resemble panel transpositions of miniaturist calendars. He was a contemporary of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and, like him, though in a highly personal fashion, interpreted certain engravings and models designed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hans Bol. He thus remained deeply attached to the spirit and rather archaic conception of the sixteenth century.

He is characterized by strict, precise graphics, a synthetic vision of nature following in the foot-path of the primitives and miniature painters, a composition with schematic lines, and great subtlety in the choice and juxtaposition of the tones.