The landscape painter Joos de Momper the Younger was born in Antwerp in 1564 as the son of the painter and art dealer Bartholomeus de Momper and his wife Suzanna Halfroose. He was apprenticed to his father like his brothers Hans and Bartholomeus. In 1581 he was accepted into the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a master. He was most probably in Rome in the 1580s, where the frescoes of the Chiesa San Vitale are attributed to him. Before his marriage on 4th September 1590 he had returned from Italy to Antwerp. The Liggeren recorded that he had four pupils in 1591, 1594 and 1599, and he also taught his son Philippe, born in 1598. In 1596 Momper bought the house "de Vliegende Os", where he stayed until his death, although he had to sell it in December 1633 due to financial difficulties. A document from 1617 states, however, that he lived together with Sebastiaen Vrancx and his brother Hans in the street "de Wapper". His participation in the furnishing of the festive decorations on the occasion of the entry of Archduke Ernst van Oostenrijk as the new governor of the Netherlands on 14th June 1594, as well as the payments made in 1600 and 1601 by the Court of Brussels for two frontispieces and 27 paintings "serving dead the boeck van de Incompste van Hare Hoocheden", testify to his success. In 1610 Momper was co-dean, in 1611/12 he served as head dean of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. In 1616 Archduchess Isabella granted Momper exemption from various taxes and burdens at his request. Ten years later she supported Momper's efforts towards the Antwerp magistrate to obtain the same benefits as Jan Brueghel the Elder. From then on he was also released from the duty to accommodate soldiers and to keep citizen's watch. In 1622 his son Philippe set off on a two-year trip to Italy together with Jan Brueghel the Younger. In the same year he was accepted by the Guild of Saint Luke as the son of a member, but throughout his life he could not establish himself as an independent artist alongside his father. On 2nd November 1634, shortly after the death of his son, Momper made his will. He died, leaving behind debts, on 5th February 1635.
