BOLSWERT Schelte Adams

(Bolsward 1580 c. – Antwerp 1633)

A painter and engraver of southern Netherlands, younger brother of Bolswert Boetius, who was an engraver in turn. The strange name of this artist, perhaps the skillest among the engravers who worked for Rubens, is reported as Schetleon in the archives of the guild of Antwerp painters.

He was born in Bolsward, Friesland, in about 1586 and died in Antwerp in 1659.

After working, probably with his brother Boetius (an engraver too) in Amsterdam and Haarlem, he settled in Antwerp where he had working relationship and friendship with Rubens.

Schelte has drawn his youthful engravings from Jacob Jordaens and Theodor Rombouts, but the most important part of his artistic production during mature age is undoubtedly inspired to Rubens’ work.

In fact, after the death of Boetius in 1633, Schelte was employed by Rubens in place of his brother and worked closely with the master, who often retouched his engravings directly. After the death of Rubens (1640), Schelte continued to be engaged in the graphic style desired by the master, reproducing many of his paintings and drawings. It is thanks to his work that the landscapes of Rubens have known a great popularity and have had a profound influence on the landscape painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.