The Flemish baroque painter Thomas van Apshoven, at times erroneously named "Theodore", was born in Antwerp in 1622. He was baptized there on 30 November. Thomas van Abshoven completed his apprenticeship in the studio of the famous David Teniers the Younger.
The marriage of Thomas van Apshoven with Barbara Janssens is attested for 1645, the same year Thomas van Apshoven was appointed wine master of the Antwerp Guild. Thomas van Apshoven was also active also in the Antwerp vigilante group, sources mention him as a standard-bearer (1652), as well as a captain (1657).
By around the middle of the century, Thomas van Abshoven had become an established painter. In his oeuvre he shows the influence of his teacher David Teniers the Younger: In addition to some still-lives, Thomas van Apshoven was primarily occupied with rustic folk- and genre scenes and interiors. At times individual pictorial elements in the works of Thomas van Apshoven are directly modeled after David Teniers the Younger. This proximity between student and teacher often leads to false attributions nowadays. In terms of color, however, a subdued range of greyish and brownish shades dominates works by Thomas van Apshoven, quite unlike Teniers.
Among the students of Thomas van Abtshoven, Hendrik van Voren (Hendrik van Voorburg, 1650) and Hendrik van Erp (Hendrik van Herp III 1651/52) are attested.
Thomas van Apshoven, whose works are now exhibited in, for example, the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Dresden Gallery or the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, died in his native city of Antwerp in 1665.