| Though he is placed in the second rank of Dutch painters, Jan Hackaert, the youngest of the second generation of Italianate landscape painters, is generally acknowledged as a talented master whose views of woodland lanes filled with dappled sunlight are singularly appealing. Not much is known about Jan (who also is known as Johannes, Joannes, and Joan). Baptized in Amsterdam in February 1628, he trained with an unknown master sometime in the late 1630s and early 1640s. It is generally agreed that he traveled three times to Switzerland. Drawings of Swiss views bear dates from July 1653 to July 1656. During his Swiss travels, Hackaert made a considerable number of drawings from specific sites. Several drawings of the waterfalls at Schaffhausen still survive, for example. One of Hackaert's trips came about when he became one of twelve artists commissioned by the Amsterdam lawyer Laurens van der Hem to make detailed topographical studies of various parts of the world. Thirty-eight of Hackaert's drawings of the area southwest of Zurich, done in 1655, were included in Jan Blaeu's Atlas Major of 1662 (Vienna, National Library), which grew out of van der Hem's project. Scholars are divided over a sojourn to Italy. Some of Hackaert's drawings are thought to include views of that country. Moreover, the considerable body of his Italianate paintings is, to the minds of some scholars, further evidence of firsthand knowledge of the Italian campagna; others dismiss this assertion. Part of the problem arises from the fact that while Hackaert's drawings range from highly detailed topographical studies done on the spot, to recreations of known sites done in his studio, to imaginary views, his paintings are mostly imaginary-although a few such as his View of Lake Zurich (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) and View of Kleve (Groningen, Groninger Museum) record places he must have seen. Relatively few works are dated but examples appear from 1657 on. In 1658 documents record Hackaert as living on Amsterdam's Kaisergracht. His last known dated picture comes from 1685, and it is thought he died in Amsterdam shortly thereafter. Hackaert was (according to Houbraken*) friendly with Adriaen van de Velde,* who sometimes supplied animals and figures in Hackaert's works. Johannes Lingelbach* and Claes Berchem* also performed this service on occasion. Jan Both* and Adam Pynacker* were the principal inspirations for Hackaert, whose Italianate landscapes and forest scenes depended on their models. Nonetheless, Hackaert managed to add his own vision to his sources. Hackaert's masterpiece may be one of his rare excursions into topographical accuracy, the View of Lake Zurich (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), which is exceptional both in quality and in subject matter. Dated to the early 1660s, the picture is a marvelous fusion of fact with fiction. Bathing the cold northern region in an impossibly warm, honeycolored Italian light, Hackaert sets before the viewer a broad, beautifully conceived vista including lake, foothills, and distant mountains. Hackaert most likely composed the picture from drawings he made in situ, but here, too, his accuracy is tempered by artistic license. Staffage, for example, is kept small to lend majesty and scale to the huge panorama. Many of Hackaert's best-known pictures are fanciful excursions into Dutch forests. Depicting tall trees lining quiet streams or lanes curving gently through the picture so as to allow his travelers or hunters to meander along at well-placed intervals, Hackaert produced particularly pleasing effects of dappled sunlight on the trees, water, foliage, and in the air. A typical and charming example is the River Bend with Hunting Party on a Road, generally dated to the end of his career and preserved in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Relatively few works are known. |
