Gaspar de Crayer work location City of Brussels
De Crayer's early works include portraits of the kings of Spain and the Spanish governors and officials who were stationed in the Spanish Netherlands as well as members of the Brussels city council. For example, the Equestrian portrait of Don Diego Messia Felipe de Guzmán (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) was painted by de Crayer in 1627–1628. In addition, from the beginning of his career de Crayer received orders for altarpieces to decorate several churches and monasteries around Brussels.  Although he was still living in Brussels, he played a leading role in the coordination of the monumental decorations for the Joyous Entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, brother of King Philip IV of Spain, as governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1635.   He created one of the two triumphal arches on the Vrijdagmarkt in Ghent, depicting scenes of the illustrious deeds of Ferdinand's Ghent-born great-grandfather Charles V. The Cardinal-Infante  made him his first court painter in the same year. He later worked as a court painter for the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria who became governor in 1647.He operated a large workshop which produced portraits of members of the leading classes in Brussels as well as a large number of altarpieces for churches in Flanders and abroad including Germany and Spain.  He also received in 1647 a commission from Dutch architect Jacob van Campen to assist in the decoration of Huis ten Bosch, the palace of stadtholder Frederick Henry in The Hague.  De Crayer also completed commissions for Spanish patrons, the largest of which was a commission for at least 17 images of saints, possibly destined for the Monastery of St Francis in Burgos. Another important foreign patron was the German Catholic ruler Maximilian Willibald of Waldburg-Wolfegg, for whom de Crayer executed several large altarpieces for the churches in the Palatinate between 1658 and 1666.Even while he gained a high social position in Brussels, de Crayer did not lose contact with his hometown Antwerp. He was in particular a friend and business associate of the art dealer Matthijs Musson (c. 1600–78), who was also his patron and arranged commissions for him. He married Catharina Janssens on 17 February 1613.
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