(b Antwerp, 24 Jan 1544; d Amsterdam, bur 4 Jan 1607). Painter, draughtsman and collector, son of (1) Jan van Coninxloo II. Van Mander, a contemporary of Gillis van Coninxloo III, wrote in 1604: ‘He is, as far as I know, the best landscape painter of his time; his style is now frequently imitated in Holland.’ Van Mander, moreover, based all his guidelines for landscape painters in his didactic poem Grondt der edel vry schilderconst (‘Principles of the noble and free art of painting’) on Gillis van Coninxloo’s ideas, since Gillis’s contributions to the development of Dutch and Flemish landscape painting were of decisive importance. More than any other artist, he represented the heroic landscape, an interpretation of nature based on reality but with a tendency to idealize the scenery, thus making the whole sublime. While his predecessors painted vast panoramic landscapes, Gillis III rendered self-contained glimpses of nature and created a sense of unity between man and nature as well as between the landscape and the viewer. A similar notion was being developed simultaneously in Italy by such artists of Netherlandish origin as Lodewijk Toeput and Paolo Fiammingo. Van Coninxloo, who never actually visited Italy, probably came to know this new style through prints by Cornelis Cort after Girolamo Muziano, which were then circulating throughout the Netherlands. Other northern artists such as Jan Breughel the elder and Paul Bril achieved similar results at the same time or even before. Their contribution to the development of forest landscapes may therefore be considered to be at least as important as that of Gillis van Coninxloo, if not more so.

Part of the Coninxloo, van (i) family

• Coninxloo (i), Gillis van, III (1544-1607)
  • Bruegel: (2) Pieter Brueghel II
  • Coninxloo, van (i)
  • Mertens, Jan
  • Netherlands, the, §III, 4(iv): Painting and graphic arts, c 1550–c 1680: Amsterdam
  • collaboration
    • Cleve, van (ii): (2) Marten van Cleve I
    • Mander, van: (1) Karel van Mander I, §3(ii): Paintings
  • groups and movements
    • Frankenthal school
    • Landscape painting, §II, 4(ii): 16th century: The Netherlands
  • patrons and collectors
    • Snyders, Frans, §1(iii): Late works, after 1640
  • pupils
    • Schoubroeck, Pieter
    • Segers, Hercules, §1: Life
    • Velde, van de (i): (1) Esaias van de Velde
  • reproductive prints by others
    • Bolswert: (1) Boetius Bolswert
    • Bolswert: (2) Schelte Bolswert
    • Bruyn, de: (2) Nicolaes de Bruyn
  • works
    • Belgium, §III, 3(i)(a): Painting, c 1550–c 1600
    • Coninxloo, van (i): (2) Gillis van Coninxloo III, §2: Amsterdam, 1595 and after
    • Frame, §VIII, 4: Spain: Herrera style
    • Nicquet
    • Prints, §II, 1(viii): Subject-matter, before c 1700: Landscape