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Willenhoudt, Adriaen
Antwerp, 1609 - Antwerp, 1675/76
Other names
Monogrammist AW
Biography
Adriaen Willenhout was an Antwerp painter active in the city from 1631 until his death, whose estate duties were settled between 18 September 1675 and 18 September 1676. He was the son of the painter Matthijs Willenhoudt (d. 1611) and Anna Wortelmans, herself from a family of artists. In May 1632 he married Maria Bacx, with whom he had at least one daughter, Anna Maria. Willenhout entered the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp as a wijnmeester – the son of a master – during the guild year 1632–33, as recorded by Rombouts and Van Lerius. Shortly before, in March 1632, he joined the Sodaliteit van de bejaerde jongmans – the Sodality of the Unmarried Men –, indicating that he had reached legal majority. In 1635–36 the Guild granted him permission to sell the paintings belonging to the estate of his mother, Anna Wortelmans, suggesting his involvement in the administration and dispersal of family artistic property.
Throughout his career, Willenhout trained several apprentices, attesting to an established workshop practice. Rombouts and Van Lerius list among his pupils Adriaen Kerstens and Francisco (François) van Houten in 1632–33; Coenrraet Clouwens in 1635–36; and Gilliam de Weert together with Johannes Hermans in 1644–45. The latter two, Hermans and François van Houten, are also cited as his documented pupils in later sources. Although few works can be securely attributed to him today, the archival record situates Willenhout firmly within the artistic milieu of mid‑seventeenth‑century Antwerp.