Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1596-1656 Jan van Goyen was born in Leiden on Jan. 13, 1596. Apprenticed from the age of 10, he had several masters. About 1617 he went to Haarlem to study with Esaias van de Velde, an important innovator in the Haarlem movement of realistic landscape painting. Van Goyen's works between 1621 and 1625 are sometimes hard to distinguish from those of his teacher. They are colorful, detailed views of villages and roads, usually busy with people, as in Winter (1621). It was Van Goyen's usual practice to sign or monogram and date his paintings. He traveled extensively through the Netherlands and beyond, recording his impressions in sketchbooks, occasionally with dates and often depicting recognizable scenes. Thus the chronology of his development is clear. His paintings of the late 1620s show a steady advance from the strong colors and scattered organization of his early works toward tonality and greater simplicity and unity of composition. By 1630 he was painting monochromes in golden brown or pale green; he played a leading part in the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting. In 1631 Van Goyen settled in The Hague, where he became a citizen in 1634. The simplicity, airiness, and unification of his compositions continued to increase in his abundant production of dune landscapes, river views, seascapes, town views, and winter landscapes. The River View (1636) displays a river so open and extensive as to suggest the sea, with reflections that prolong the vast and luminous sky. In its monumentalization of humble structures and its composition built on a firm scaffolding of horizontal and vertical forces, it forecast at this early date developments that dominated landscape painting in the 1650s and later. In the Village and Dunes (1647) the traditional double-diagonal composition still exists, but it is dominated by horizontal and vertical accents. Stronger contrasts of light and dark replace the earlier tonality. In the last year of his life Van Goyen produced an eloquent new style, in which powerful forms stand out against the radiant sky and water in an exquisitely balanced composition (Evening Calm; 1656). The commission in 1651 to paint a panoramic view of The Hague for the Burgomaster's Room shows the high regard in which Van Goyen was held. He was enormously productive; well over 1,000 of his paintings still exist, and almost as many drawings. Yet he died insolvent, perhaps because of losses in his various business ventures, and soon after his death on April 27, 1656,   Related Paintings of GOYEN, Jan van :. | Winter | View of Dordrecht from the Oude Maas sdg | Haymaking dg | View of Leiden dg | River Landscape with a Windmill and a Ruined Castle sdg |
Related Artists:
edward dayes

Frederick Walker,ARA,RWS
1840-1875 English painter and illustrator. He acquired his training in drawing and painting through study in the British Museum (where he copied heavily from the Antique), a short period spent in an architect's office, life classes at Leigh's school, a studentship at the Royal Academy and three years' employment as a draughtsman on wood with the commercial engraver Josiah Wood Whymper (1813-1903).
Antoon Claeissens
(his name is given in many varieties, with his first name rendered as Anton, Anthonie, Anthony, Anthuenis, and his surname as Claes, Claesz, Claeis, Claeiss, Claessens and Claeissins), the son of Pieter Claes the elder, painted historical and allegorical subjects, and portraits. He was a native of Bruges, and there entered the Guild of St. Luke in 1575, and became its dean in 1586, 1590, and 1601. He died in 1613. His works, several of which are in the Hôtel-de-Ville and churches of Bruges, are distinguished by their fine colouring and finish. In the H6tel-de-Ville is a 'Grand Banquet' with many portraits of magistrates of the time, dated 1574. His son, Pieter Anthonie, was dean of the Guild of St. Luke at Bruges in 1607, and died in 1608.