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Gillis Congnet was - beside Anthonis Mor and Frans Pourbus the Elder - one of the important Flemish portrait painters of the second half of the 16th century. The portrait of Pierson La Hues, drummer and page of the Old Archers' Guild, was painted by him in 1581. This painting is a marvelous representative of a genre which, in the 16th century, was the least rated of the painter's specialisms. As the portrait is closest to life, contemporary opinion deemed it to be much less creative or intellectual than mythological, biblical or moralistic painting. Nevertheless, this portrait provides us with one of the most lively documents of the 16th century.
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