Talk:Mathieu Elias

"Nationality"
As I was trying to clarify the introduction a bit to make clear where to sort this person in, I was struggling somewhat when it came to label him as a French or a Flemish painter. Today his birthplace obviously is in France; at the time of his birth it still seemed to have been part of the Spanish Netherlands (and only became French by the Treaty of Nijmegen). The place name Peena is also a Flemish and not a Franch one. On the other hand, while his last name Elias may not be clearly be put in either camp, his first name Mathieu sure sounds French. Add to this that he spent most of his career in Paris (though, of course many foreigners also did) I think French may fit better than Flemish. The article in Bryan's dictionary avoids the problem by simply not assigning any nationality at all and of course one must always be careful with such concepts for a time when there was not yet such a thing as citizenship as we know it today. Just wanted to point out that the respective categories may be somewhat ambiguous here. Proofreader (talk) 11:45, 29 June 2023 (UTC)