Dimensions: 22,5 x 36 cm
Frame: yes
Pieter Stevens II or Peter Stevens II (ca. 1567 in Mechelen - after 1626 in Prague) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman known for his landscapes. He left Flanders to work for the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. The circulation of prints made after a series of romantic Bohemian landscape drawings by Stevens and other artists had an important influence on the development of Flemish and Dutch landscape art in the 17th century.
Little documentary evidence survives for the life of Pieter Stevens. He was likely born in Mechelen somewhere between 1557 and 1577. There is no information as to whether he was related to Pieter Stevens I, a draughtsman active between 1550 and 1570.
Capriccio View of a City (possibly Prague)
A group of Roman views dated to 1590-91 has been interpreted as an indication that he visited Italy as a young man. However, these drawings are rather crude and probably based on works of Jan Brueghel the Elder and are therefore no evidence that he visited Italy in those years. However, he may have done somewhat later as the first mature works known by him dated 1592 represent views of Roman sights.
By April 1594 Stevens is recorded in Prague at his appointment as a court painter to the Emperor Rudolf II, with a salary of 8 guilders per month. It is likely that he became acquainted with the many other Flemish and Dutch artists active at the Prague court such as Roelandt Savery, Paulus van Vianen, Hans Vredeman de Vries, his son Paul Vredeman de Vries and Philippus van den Bossche. After Rudolf's death in 1612, Stevens likely entered the service of Karl I, Prince of Liechtenstein.
Details about the time and place of his death are not available. He must have died between 1626 and 1632 as in 1626 he was last recorded in connection with the funeral of his son Šroněk and in 1632 his daughter sold his house, for which she required a proxy of her brother, a sign that the artist was then deceased.
He was the father of Anton II (who trained under him) and Peter III. He was an uncle of Maurus Moreels (II) of Mechelen who studied under him in Prague and had a successful career as a history and portrait painter upon his return to Flanders. Two of his grandsons were also painters in Prague
