About Antoon Gheringh

Also known as Anton Ghunter Gheringh.

Flemish painter of German origin.
Date and place of birth unkown – 1668 Antwerp.

Painter of architectural scenes and of church interiors.

It is thought that Gheringh arrived in Antwerp around 1660. He was for the first time inscribed as a member of the Painters’ Guild of Saint Luke in the year1662/1663. He died here in 1668. Almost all his signed and dated works are from his Antwerp years; they represent local church interiors. He painted several versions of the interior of the former Jesuit church, today known as the Carolus Borromeus church in Antwerp, showing the original decoration by Rubens, that got destroyed by fire in 1718.

There is no information about Gheringh’s formative years. Although he was said to be a pupil of Pieter Neeffs I (circa 1578 - 1656/61), his paintings from his Antwerp period show more the influence of the Dutch painters Bartolomeus van Bassen ( who was probably born in Antwerp, but spent almost his entire career in Holland; circa 1590 - 1652) and of his pupil Gerard van Houckgeest (circa 1600 - 1661). 

Recently it was discovered that Gheringh was active for maybe half a decade in Leewarden, the capital of Friesland in the North of Holland, probably from circa 1645 onwards. Indeed documents from the administration of its Old Civile Orphanage were found that testify that he worked here as a drawing teacher. A valuation of a private collection from Leeuwarden, made in 1654, mentions a painting by him, actually the only painting by Gheringh mentioned in those days in a collection in the Dutch Republic. In 1973 a signed painting by Gheringh was discovered behind the panelling of the main salon in a house in Leeuwarden.