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1631

Returns to Antwerp and joins the Guild of St Luke

Brouwer returns to his native Flanders and is registered as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, even before becoming a citizen of Antwerp. He lived and worked in the city until his death.

1631–1638

Debts and want in Antwerp

Brouwer's name regularly appears in Antwerp records in connection with the settlement of his debts; in his lifetime his paintings did not fetch high prices, and his household goods were seized for his creditors. His fellow artists valued him more highly than the market did: Rubens bought several of his pictures for his collection and tried to extend his patronage to the “incorrigible carouser”.

1631–1638 · Virkested

Antwerp

1633

Jailed in the Antwerp Citadel

The reason for the imprisonment is unclear: possibly tax evasion, or perhaps politics, as the local authorities may have considered Brouwer a spy for the Dutch Republic.

1633

Meets Joos van Craesbeeck in the Citadel

The bakery in the Citadel was run by the baker Joos van Craesbeeck, and the two are assumed to have met there. According to the biographer Cornelis de Bie, Craesbeeck became Brouwer's pupil and best friend, which the similarity of his early work to Brouwer's seems to confirm.

26 April 1634

Moves into the house of the engraver Paulus Pontius

Brouwer takes lodgings in the house of the prominent engraver Paulus Pontius; the two had become close friends, and the painter lived there until his death. The same year the friends joined the local chamber of rhetoric “Violieren”.