THE FRANCK FAMILY
Although the Louvre owns no picture by Frans Floris, the head of the Italianising mid-sixteenth-century Antwerp school, his uninteresting style may be studied in The Story of Esther (No. 1989) by his pupil Frans Franck (1542–1616). To that second-rate artist’s son, Frans Franck the Younger (1581–1642), who already benefited to a certain extent by the example of Rubens, is given in the official Catalogue Ulysses recognising Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes (No. 1991a). The Parable of the Prodigal Son (No. 1990), which is also catalogued under his name, is obviously by his son Frans Franck iii., since the date 1663 precedes the signature, and F. Franck the younger died in 1642.
Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569–1622) was born at Antwerp, but spent the later part of his life in Paris, where, like his father, he enjoyed considerable reputation as a portrait painter. He had previously been working at the Mantuan Court, and became painter to Marie de Médicis after 1609. Although he occasionally produced altarpieces like the rather uninspired Last Supper (No. 2068) and St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (No. 2069), he was essentially a portrait painter. In this capacity he belongs rather to the age that was coming to a close than to the new era initiated by Rubens. His portraits are quite soundly painted, rich in colour, and convincing as likenesses, but lack depth of character and suavity of touch. By far his best pictures at the Louvre are the Portrait of Henri IV. (No. 2071) and the large Portrait of Marie de Médicis (No. 2072), in which the details of the costume are particularly noteworthy. Less important is another Portrait of Henri IV. (No. 2070), and one of Guillaume du Vair (No. 2074).
Octavius van Veen, or Otto Venius (1558–1629), the painter of The Artist and his Family (No. 2191), owes his fame more to the fact that he was one of the three masters under whom Rubens studied than to any intrinsic merit of his art.