David de Noterartist • painterGent (België) 1818-1892 Algiers (Algerije)

The Belgian David de Noter had a preference for interiors, genre scenes and still lifes with flowers, fruits and/or game. He learned to paint from his father Jean-Baptiste André de Noter, a painter of cityscapes and interiors. In 1840 he settled in Brussels; he also regularly stayed in Paris. De Noter worked together with Jean Auguste Henri Leys from Antwerp: he painted flowers, vegetables or fruits on a number of Leys' works. And Leys painted the figures on some of De Noter's works. Outsourcing the painting of people, animals, buildings and other attributes to another was a common way of working well into the 19th century. Specialization, focusing on a certain genre within the art of painting, provoked this custom: portraitists, painters of floral arrangements and still lifes, cattle painters, Marinists and landscape painters made use of each other's specific skills where necessary.