| Regarded as one of the most important Dutch landscape painters of the second generation, Both is credited with reviving landscape painting in Utrecht. He was the son of Dirck Booth (or Both), a glass painter; his birthdate and place of birth are unknown. Since apprenticeship fees were paid by Dirck Booth for his son in Utrecht between 1634 and 1637t we can assume that Jan was born in Utrecht and was the son mentioned in the document, since his brother, Andries, was apprenticed to Abraham Bloemaert* in 1624 and 1625. Cornells van Poelenburgh* painted a portrait of Jan Both that is dated 1648 (Herdringen, Wyttenhorst-Furstenberg collection) and shows him at around thirty years of age. Both's birthdate is therefore calculated to be around 1615. Both first trained with his father; then, according to Sand ran, together with his brother Andries he studied with Abraham Bloemaert. Some modern scholars discount Jan's study with Bloemaert. The two brothers may have set out for Italy together, via France. However, Andries was documented in Rome by 1635 and Jan only by 1638. We know they lived together in Rome between 1639 and 1641. The year 1641 is often given for Andries's accidental drowning in Venice during the brothers' return home. But other scholars point to the fact that in 1642 Jan was paid sixty scudi by Cardinal Antonio Barberini, fixing that as the year for the return trip and Andries's death. Jan thereupon returned to Utrecht, where he lived the few remaining years of his life, dying very young in 1652. In 1649 he was an "overman" at the St. Luke's Guild (together with Poelenburgh and Jan Baptist Weenix). The first datable paintings in his career are five landscapes (Madrid, Prado) executed with his brother, which originally formed part of the two cycles of twenty-two landscapes commissioned for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid between 1639 and 1640, from artists as diverse as Herman van Swanevelt, Nicolas Poussin, Gaspar Dughet, and Claude Lorrain. Although Both frequently signed his pictures, only two dated paintings survive: Southern Landscape with Travelers (signed and dated 1649, Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts) and Landscape with Mercury and Argus (dated 1650, Bayreuth, Bayerische Staatsgalerie). Many scholars accept Sand ran's opinion that in Rome Both was inspired by the work of Claude Lorrain, whose own work at this period depicted warmly lit bucolic landscapes. Both*s efforts in Italy seem to have included architectural scenes, which in turn may have influenced Viviano Codazzi, who has been called the inventor of the architectural vedute (views) in Italy. Jan also traveled the Italian countryside, sketching from nature. That work formed the basis for his best-known paintings, which were done after he returned to Holland. Over forty drawings still exist. In addition to the influence of Claude, Both evidently found inspiration from Pieter van Laer, whose bambocciate (Roman street scenes) Jan emulated early in his career. His Landscape with Temple Ruins (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) and his Roman Street Scene (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) are typical of the low-life genre scenes van Laer popularized. It has been suggested that Andries may have added staffage on occasion. Both's fame, however, is based on his idyllic landscapes bathed in a warm, golden light, which inspired a whole generation of Dutch landscape painters. He is considered the earliest developer of a picturesque or romantic view of the Italian countryside. Often incorporating existing monuments–such as the Ponte Lucano and the Ponte di Ligno, near Tivoli, and the Colosseum – Both placed them in imaginary contexts and suffused them in a soft, glowing ambience. The characters who people these restful worlds contribute to the relaxed, if slightly wistful, mood by their slow, sometimes weary and sometimes simply passive attitudes and movements. He is also credited with introducing contre-jour or lighting that faces the sun (so to speak), an effect he no doubt learned from Claude. Of great importance to later artists, Both's landscapes often include groves of trees rendered with great detail, tossing and reflecting the light, with the distance dissolving into hazy atmosphere. A charming example is Peasants and Mules and Oxen near a River (signed, London, National Gallery). More startling, and even more forward looking in its anticipation of Romanticism, is Both's Alpine Landscape with Ft Tree (Detroit Institute of Art), which shares the awed and reverential spirit toward nature found later in Caspar David Friedrich's landscapes. Both's oeuvre cannot be said to have undergone much development, although his work did seem to become increasingly balanced and harmonious in composition, using more saturated colors and more subtle tonal gradations, and meticulous in detail. In Both's later paintings descriptions of leaves and tree bark begin to resemble the kind of detail that Adam Pynacker used. A fine later example of Both's mature work is the Landscape with Bandits Leading Prisoners (signed, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). Both developed well the notion of adopting realistic and wholly convincing elements of landscape and injecting them with dreamlike overtones. In balancing the two, with the scales tipped toward realism, Both was able to create deeply evocative and subtle moods. Occasionally, Both turned from pure landscape to landscapes incorporating religious or mythological subjects. Frequently he had other painters paint the figures. For example, in the Judgement of Paris (London, National Gallery), the landscape is by Both and the figures are by Cornelis van Poelenburgh; in the Landscape with Juno, Mercury, and Argus (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) the landscape is by Both, the figures by Nicolaus Knupfer, and the animals by Jan Baptist Weenix. This same trio produced the Seven Works of Mercy in Kassel (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen) and the Pursuit of Happiness in Schwerin (Staatliches Museum). Both's followers include Claes Berchem, Jan Hackaert, Frederick de Moucheron, Aelbert Cuyp, Willem de Heusch, and Adam Pynacker. |
