Hoecke, Wilhelm - Equestrian Portrait of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm

An archival premium Quality art Print of Equestrian Portrait of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm by Vanden Hoecke for sale by Brandywine General Store. Archduke Leopold Wilhelm was the youngest son of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Maria Anna of Bavaria. He was an Austrian military commander, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands and a patron of the arts, of which he is probably most known today. Archduke Wilhelm was a great lover of the arts, when he assumed the government of the Spanish Netherlands, he employed several painters from the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, including the great Flemish Painter David Teniers, the Younger. He employed Teniers not only as a painter but as keeper of the collection of pictures he was then forming. Immense sums were spent by the Archduke on collecting all his works of art from artists such as Frans Snyders, Pieter Snayers, Frans Wouters, Jan van den Hoecke, Pieter Thijs and many others including valuable works of the Italian Masters. He commissioned British painter John Michael Wright to travel to Cromwell's England to acquire artworks and various artifacts. Leopold bequeathed his vast collections to his nephew Leopold I and it became Imperial property. It is now part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There is a painting by David Teniers the Younger of the vast art collection of the archduke, of which we also have prints. This would have been an early cataloging system of the valuable artworks, it is hard to imagine what this collection is worth today. Famous People art print #52