Erasmus Quellinus

Erasmus Quellinus II was born in Antwerp on 19 November 1607, the son of the sculptor Erasmus Quellinus the Elder (Erasmus Quellinus I, about 1584 to 1640). Contemporary sources describe him as having pursued formal studies in the liberal arts and philosophy before turning to painting, and note that he earned degrees typically rendered as Master of Arts and Magister Philosophiae. The exact university and years of this study are not documented in surviving records.

He began an apprenticeship with the painter Jan Baptist Verhaeghe in 1633, and in 1633 to 1634 was admitted as a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. Through the 1630s he worked in the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens; a 1643 letter by the Antwerp printer Balthasar I Moretus refers to him as a pupil of Rubens, a description repeated by later biographers Cornelis de Bie and Jan Meyssens. After Rubens's death in 1640, Quellinus became one of Antwerp's leading figure painters, producing large scale religious and mythological compositions, tapestry designs, and numerous garland paintings created in partnership with the flower painter Daniel Seghers. His son, Jan Erasmus Quellinus (1634 to 1715), also became a painter and should not be confused with his father.

Quellinus died in Antwerp; sources disagree on the exact day. German language reference works, the Staedel Museum's collection record, and a 2024 Christie's lot description give 7 November 1678, while the English Wikipedia article and Google Arts and Culture give 11 November 1678. This profile follows the majority reading of 7 November 1678 pending further verification, and flags the discrepancy rather than asserting a single date with certainty.

A Historians of Netherlandish Art review of the exhibition "Erasmus Quellinus (1607 to 1678): De voetsporen van Rubens" ("In Rubens's Footsteps") uses a title that positions him explicitly as Rubens's most significant follower and workshop collaborator rather than as an independent stylistic innovator. A related exhibition under the French title "Dans le sillage de Rubens" ("In Rubens's Wake") has also been reported, though its exact venue and dates could not be independently confirmed for this profile. No verbatim critical quotations attributable to a named critic in a major outlet could be confirmed for this profile, and no major prizes, honors, or academy distinctions appear in the available record. His standing instead rests on guild status, museum holdings, and his documented role in the Rubens workshop.

Quellinus's market is typical of a major but non canonical Antwerp Old Master: consistent institutional presence but thin, attribution sensitive auction activity. Based on publicly accessible sources, the highest documented price is EUR 56,250 (including premium), paid at Lempertz in Cologne for the painting "Thetis Receiving Weapons for Achilles" (auction 1197); the exact sale date could not be confirmed. No higher public auction result was located in the available research, though paywalled price databases such as Artnet and Artprice were not accessible for this review and may record additional or higher sales.

There is no published catalogue raisonne for Quellinus and no gallery or estate represents his work today. As with most seventeenth century Antwerp masters, his paintings move through Old Master auction departments and specialist dealers rather than a managed contemporary market. Attribution matters more than almost any other factor in his pricing: the same auction house will qualify some lots as fully autograph and others as merely attributed to or circle of, and the price gap between those categories can be substantial. Collectors should also take care not to confuse him with his father, the sculptor Erasmus Quellinus the Elder, or with his son, the painter Jan Erasmus Quellinus, both of whom appear under similar names in auction catalogues and museum records.