Anton Boys

Anton Boys called Anton Waiss (between 1530 and 1550 – after 1593) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and printmaker who after training in Antwerp had an international career, which brought him to Italy, Spain, Prague, Innsbruck and Landshut.

He was court painter to Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria for whom he realised a series of contemporary and historical portraits of members of the imperial House of Habsburg, many of which are in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. He was also an important witness and illustrator of key events in the life of the Habsburgs: he made the engravings for a book describing celebrations on the occasion of the grant of the Order of the Golden Fleece to leading Imperial court members and created an almost lifesize depiction of a wedding banquet of a powerful branch of the Imperial family.

The artist was born in Antwerp. The date of his birth is not known and estimates vary from circa 1530 to circa 1550. He became in 1572 a free master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.

In the period from 1574 to 1576 he is believed to have traveled to Italy and Spain. Around 1575 the artist was employed by Count Jakob Hannibal I of Hohenems as a court painter. In the period from 1579 to 1593 the artist is recorded as being active in Prague, Innsbruck and Landshut. He was appointed in 1579 as court painter to Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria and at the same time received 320 guilders for one of his works. It is around this time that the artist starts using the Germanised form of his name 'Anthoni (Anton) Waiss'.

In 1580 Boys received a grant of arms, which conferred on him the right to bear a coat of arms or armorial bearings. He is mentioned twice as court painter in Innsbruck (in 1584 and 1586). In particular it is recorded that in 1584 he received the large sum of 1060 florins, which points to a significant activity of the artist.

He married in 1587 with Barbara Geiger from Innsbruck and established a foundation for the poor in 1589 with a donation of 100 guilders. A record from 1589 refers to the deterioration of the health of Anton Boys and the need to find a new court painter.

It is not known when or where the artist died. Estimates place his time of death between 1593 and 1603.

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