Recognizing his pupil’s talent, Floris entrusted Pourbus with completing unfinished canvases. This period helped Pourbus develop a more painterly style. According to the Flemish biographer Karel van Mander, Pourbus intended to travel to Italy in 1566, a common journey for artists seeking inspiration. However, he abandoned his plans after visiting the painter-poet Lucas de Heere in Ghent. Van Mander, then a pupil of de Heere, recounts that Pourbus had fallen in love with the niece of his master. Instead of continuing to Italy, he returned to Antwerp and married Suzanna Floris, the daughter of Cornelis Floris de Vriendt, a renowned sculptor and architect, and the niece of his mentor Frans Floris.

 

In 1569, Pourbus and Suzanna had a son, Frans Pourbus ‘the Younger’, who later became a prominent portrait painter with an international career. The couple had three more children, two of whom died in childhood. That same year, Pourbus was registered as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in both Bruges and Antwerp. He took on several pupils, including Rochtus Gabrelius da Bresson in 1572 and Peeter Cobbe in 1575. Around this time, he was contacted by the esteemed portraitist Anthonis Mor, seeking assistance in finding apprentices in Antwerp. This connection may have allowed Pourbus to study Mor’s work, and scholars suggest his mature portraits reflect Mor’s influence.

 

Suzanna Floris passed away in 1578, and Pourbus later married Anna Mahieu, the daughter of painter Jan Mahieu. The couple had a son named Moses, a name indicating their Calvinist faith. His religious beliefs may explain why, after 1577, he focused increasingly on portraiture, as Calvinists generally opposed religious paintings. Pourbus served as a standard-bearer for the civil guard. While on duty, he fell critically ill after resting near a sewer pipe in the guardhouse, contracting typhoid fever. He died on 19 September 1581. His father, Pieter Pourbus, outlived him, and his widow later married the painter Hans Jordaens the Elder.

 

Frans I Pourbus is best known for his religious and portrait paintings, with a few genre scenes also attributed to him. His portrait sitters were primarily members of the rising mercantile class, though he also painted clergy, aristocrats, and foreign dignitaries. According to Karel van Mander, Pourbus had a particular talent for depicting animals and trees with remarkable naturalism. Pourbus received numerous commissions for religious compositions, often from patrons outside Antwerp. Among his major works are The History of Saint Andrew (1572), a series of 14 panels, and the Triptych of Viglius Aytta (1571), both created for St. Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent.

 

In 1574, he was commissioned by St. Martin’s Abbey in Tournai to redecorate the church’s choir following the destruction caused by the Beeldenstorm of 1566. He produced 17 paintings in three series: a Passion of Christ series for the choir, The Crucified Christ with the Thieves for the high altar, and additional panels depicting the Life of Saint Martin, which adorned the choir stalls.During Pourbus' lifetime, portrait painting flourished in the Habsburg Netherlands, with artists like Anthonis Mor and Adriaen Thomasz. Key producing similar works. Due to stylistic similarities, their paintings are sometimes misattributed to each other. Most of Pourbus' known portraits depict affluent members of the middle class, though he also portrayed higher clergy, local aristocrats, and foreign figures. Some of his identified sitters include Dutch statesman Viglius van Aytta and Abraham Grapheus. However, the identities of many of his subjects remain uncertain, and art historians continue to debate certain attributions.

 

Pourbus also painted family portraits, two of which have survived. One of the most notable is The Hoefnagel Family (c. 1580, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). This painting portrays the prominent Antwerp family gathered around a table, likely commemorating the wedding of Balthasar Hoefnagel and Anna van Lieffelt. In his portraits, Pourbus demonstrated a keen eye for detail and psychological depth. His ability to capture both character and wealth contributed significantly to his success. This is particularly evident in the present Portrait of Peeter van Panhuys, where the sitter’s finely modeled features and expressive gaze convey a contemplative presence. The precision in rendering textures—such as that of the ruff framing the subject’s face and the fabric of his clothes — highlights Pourbus' mastery of portraiture.

 

Depicted at half length, looking confidently towards the audience and dressed in a beautiful black doublet with a heavy gold chain, van Panhuys is clearly aware of his status and importance. He can be identified with confidence, as he was also depicted twelve years later in Maerten de Vos' famous painting Moses and the Tables of the Law, surrounded by Members of the Antwerp Panhuys and Hooftman Families, now at the Mauritshuis Museum (inv. no. 249; in the Mauritshuis picture, van Panhuys is standing second from the right). 

 

Peeter van Panhuys was born in Limbourg in 1529. Around 1555 he was active as an agent in London for the wealthy merchant and banker Gillis Hooftman, who was an important patron of Maerten de Vos. On 1 December 1559 he became a poorter (citizen) of Antwerp. In 1577 he became a steward of Antwerp and in 1582 he even became the city treasurer. Van Panhuys, now Lord of IJsselaer and Soolhof, had become a wealthy man himself. After his first wife Catherina Hermans had died, he married Margaretha, Gillis’ niece, in 1561. The couple had five children. (On the Mauritshuis painting, Margaretha can be seen sitting to the right in a yellow dress, surrounded by her children.) Due to the religious upheavals, van Panhuys and his family had to flee Antwerp in 1585 and went to Amsterdam, where he and his wife died shortly thereafter. They were buried in the Oude Kerk, where their tomb can still be seen.

 

 

Concerning the attribution of the present picture to Frans I Pourbus, there are several elements that must be considered. Historically the painting was attributed to Frans’ father Pieter, but it would have been strange for an Antwerp notable to have been painted by an artist who was almost exclusively active in Bruges. Furthermore, the size of the panel, too, would suggest that the painting was made in Antwerp and not in Bruges. A far likelier candidate for author of the picture would be Frans, who was active in Antwerp from the early 1560’s onwards, and whose oeuvre counts several very similar portraits that are close in size to the present picture. 

 

For instance, in Pourbus’ Portrait of a Man (sold Christie’s, London, 10 April 1970, lot 55), painted on a panel measuring 105 x 75 cm (exactly the same dimensions as the present picture), the sitter is likewise at half-length with his hand resting on a side table. This pose was a popular one with Pourbus, as it can also be observed in his Portrait of a Man preserved in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (oil on panel, 101 x 74 cm), his Portrait of a Man in the Wallace Collection in London (oil on panel, 98 x 71 cm, inv. no. P 26) or his Portrait of a Man in the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna (oil on panel, 99 x 73,5 cm, inv. no. 566)

 

Other examples include Pourbus’ Portrait of a Man in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (oil on canvas, 104 x 73 cm) and his Portrait of a Man in a private collection (oil on canvas, 104 x 77 cm). The present picture is dated 1562, which would predate Frans Pourbus’ first documented presence in Antwerp by two years. However, it is possible that either he was already active in Antwerp at that time, or - more probably - that the date was added later, along with the age of the sitter, when the armorial devices were painted in the upper left corner. Considering Maerten de Vos’ family portrait, in which the sitter does appear about a decade older, the present portrait would probably have been painted not much later than 1565. 

 

Interestingly, a possible pendant for our picture recently emerged at auction (van Spengen, Hilversum, sale date and lot number unknown), depicting Margaretha Eyckelenbergh-Hooftman, van Panhuys’ wife, aged 17. This picture, painted on panel and measuring 77,4 x 63,6 cm, is also dated (or bearing the date) 1562 in what appears to be the same handwriting as the date in our picture. Although the painting is somewhat smaller than the present picture, this is probably due to the fact that the panel was cut at some point, resulting in the loss of the hands of the sitter, which was subsequently somewhat camouflaged by the addition of the painted oval.