Simon Dubois

1632 Antwerp – 1708 London

The painter Simon Dubois lived from 1638 to 1646 in Rotterdam, where he was apprenticed at a young age to Adriaen Lucasz. Fonteyn. He then studied under Claes Pietersz. Berchem in Haarlem, becoming a pupil of Pieter Wouwerman in 1652/53. In 1681 he moved with his brother, who was also a painter, to London, being granted British citizenship in 1697. Dubois spent eight years in Italy, a stay that was to have a lasting and visible influence on his art. In 1657 Simon was joined by his brother in Venice; he also visited Genoa and is known to have been in Rome in 1667. In England, where he enjoyed the patronage of the Lord Chancellor John Somers, Dubois began by painting small battle scenes, landscapes and game scenes. He excelled as a portrait painter and was apparently also a talented copier of small paintings by Italian masters, which he is alleged to have sold as originals. From 1698 Dubois collaborated with Willem van de Velde the Younger.