Carel van Falens[1] (baptized in Antwerp on 24 November 1683 - Paris, 26 May 1733) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, copyist, art restorer, art dealer and copyist. He specialised in scenes of hunters and cavalry encampments in the popular style of the Dutch battle and horse painter Philips Wouwerman.[2] He worked most of his life in France where he was a painter to the court and a member of the Académie royale.[3]
Van Falens was born in Antwerp as the son of Jan Baptist and Maria Anna de Kegel. His father was a captain of the local civil militia.[3] In the guild year 1696-1697 he was registered in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke as a pupil of Constantijn Francken. Constantijn Francken was a successful battle and portrait painter who had been court painter to the king of France.[4]
Van Falens did not join the Antwerp guild but moved in 1703 to Paris, where - unlike his master Francken who had done the same in young age - he stayed for the rest of his life.[4] In Paris, he initially worked as an art restorer. Later he made a living by making copies of the work of Nicolaes van Berchem and Wouwerman.[3] On 16 July 1716 he got married in the St Thomas Church in Paris with Maria Francisca (Marie-Françoise) Slodtz, the 18-year old daughter of the Antwerp sculptor Sebastiaen