Willem Schubart von Ehrenberg

Who was Willem Schubart von Ehrenberg?

Willem Schubart von Ehrenberg was a Flemish Baroque painter mainly active in Antwerp who specialized in architectural church interiors as well as paintings of fantastic Renaissance palaces and churches.

Most likely born in Antwerp (although recorded as having been born in Germany by an unnamed source), he entered the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1662. He would reside in Antwerp for the rest of his life. He must have made a trip to Italy as demonstrated by drawings of Italian subjects.

The majority of von Ehrenberg's pictures were painted between 1660 and 1670. Usually they are collaborations with other artists who added the figures or animals. This was a common practice in the works of Antwerp artists of that day. Paintings such as his Interior of the Saint-Carolus-Borromeus Church in Antwerp (1667; Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels) emphasize the Baroque architecture of the space depicted, but are more artificial than his Dutch Golden Age contemporaries such as Pieter Jansz Saenredam or Emanuel de Witte.

His son Peter Schubart von Ehrenberg was also an artist.