Editing Ambrosius Bosschaert (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder - Still-Life with flowers - Google Art Project.jpg|left|thumb|''Still-Life with flowers'', 1618, [[Hallwyl Museum]], Stockholm.]]

He was born in Antwerp, where he started his career, but he spent most of it in [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]] (1587&ndash;1613), where he moved with his family because of the threat of religious persecution. He specialized in painting [[still life]]s with flowers, which he signed with the monogram AB (the B in the A).<ref name=RKD/> At the age of twenty-one, he joined the city's [[Guild of Saint Luke]] and later became dean.<ref name=RKD/> Not long after, Bosschaert married and established himself as a leading figure in the fashionable floral painting genre.

He had three sons who all became flower painters: [[Ambrosius Bosschaert II|Ambrosius II]], [[Johannes Bosschaert|Johannes]] and [[Abraham Bosschaert|Abraham]]. His brother-in-law [[Balthasar van der Ast]] also lived and worked in his workshop and accompanied him on his travels. Bosschaert later worked in Amsterdam (1614), [[Bergen op Zoom]] (1615&ndash;1616), [[Utrecht]] (1616&ndash;1619), and [[Breda]] (1619).<ref name=RKD/> In 1619 when he moved to Utrecht, his brother-in-law van der Ast entered the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke, where the renowned painter [[Abraham Bloemaert]] had just become dean. The painter [[Roelandt Savery]] (1576–1639) entered the St. Luke's guild in Utrecht at about the same time. Savery had considerable influence on the Bosschaert dynasty.<ref name=RKD/>

After Bosschaert died in The Hague while on commission there for a flower piece, Balthasar van der Ast took over his workshop and pupils in Middelburg.<ref name=RKD/>