Jan Lievens
(1607 - 1674) |
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Historic Narratives, Mythological Narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Jan Lievens |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Leiden |
| Nationality: |
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| Birth: |
1607 |
| Death: |
1674 |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Historic Narratives, Mythological Narratives |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Jan Lievens is usually discussed as the most important member of the Rembrandt school of the Leiden period. Not a pupil of Rembrandt, Lievens was instead his friend, so close in fact that it is thought that the two shared a studio and models - and we know that Rembrandt painted on Lievens's pictures on occasion. Lievens was the more precocious of the two, being adept at painting life-sized pictures at an earlier age and celebrated as a prodigy by the Stadtholders' secretary, Constantijn Huygens. Lievens also outlived Rembrandt by five years and enjoyed success until the end of his life. He apparently had a healthy self-esteem as well, considering himself unmatched in talent and skill. Today he is firmly fixed in Rembrandt's orbit. He not only fell short of Rembrandt's greatness but he also failed to live up to the promise of his own early career. The son of Lieven Hendricksz, an embroiderer from Ghent, Lievens was first apprenticed to Joris van Schooten in Leiden when he was eight or ten years old. Scholars differ as to the dates for his further study with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, though the dates 1617 to 1619 are generally given. Lasiman's influence and that of the Utrecht Caravaggisti are evident in Lievens's early works, which are generally half-length figure compositions. Around 1620 Lievens returned to Leiden. Rembrandt came there around 1625 (having studied with Lastman in Amsterdam for six months in 1624), whereupon the two artists became quite close and may have shared a studio. Some works (for example, Portrait of a Child, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) are signed by Lievens and have been retouched by Rembrandt. Lievens was the more advanced of the two artists. He set up shop at age fourteen (1621) and painted in a much larger scale than Rembrandt did at that time. Constantijn Huygens, whose portrait Lievens painted around 1626/7 (Douai, loaned to Rijksmuseum), commented that the young Rembrandt surpassed Lievens in the expression of emotion, but that Lievens was superior in his grandeur of invention and boldness of vision. By the time Huygens wrote those observations (1629-31), Lievens had no doubt already painted histories, invented compositions, painted heads of old men, and done portraits. Among the masterpieces of his early Leiden period is Job on the Dunghill (signed and dated 1631, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada), in which he shows his brilliant adaptation of a pose originating in Annibale Carracci's Pietd (Parma, Galleria Nazionale) - which he probably knew through a print since he did not travel to Italy. Lievens's sensitive transcription of an old man's withered body remains compelling and is more reminiscent of Neapolitan baroque trends than contemporary Dutch painting. The contemporary historian J. J. Orlers of Leiden says that Lievens traveled to England around 1632. Portraits of members of the English royal family were apparently commissioned but no longer survive. Lievens then moved to Antwerp in 1635, where he joined the St. Luke's guild and where he remained until 1644, except for about a year (1639 or 1640-when he painted the Scipio Africanus for Leiden's town hall). In 1638 Lievens married the daughter of Andries Colijn de Nolde, an Antwerp sculptor, and in 1640 he gained Antwerp citizenship. During these years the art of Rubens* and van Dyck had a profound influence on Lievens, changing his interpretation of the human figure away from his earlier realism and stark pathos toward a more polished, idealized, elegant approach then gaining increasing popularity among patrons. Between 1644 and 1653 Lievens was back in Amsterdam, perhaps living with Jan Molenaer* and his wife, Judith Leyster.* From 1653/4 to 1657/8 he moved to The Piagne and helped found the painter's confraternity Pictura in 1656. He thereupon alternated his time between The Hague and Amsterdam. In 1656 he was commissioned for the large Quintus Fabius Maximus Dismounts His Horse before His Son for the Amsterdam town hall (perhaps replacing a Rembrandt); he also received commissions from the Huis ten Bosch. He was in Amsterdam from 1659 until 1669 (the year of Rembrandt's death). In March 1670 he was back in The Hague and remained there until 1671, when he is mentioned in Leiden. Among his important commissions was a large allegory of War for the house of the provincial assembly, The Hague, which is still in situ. Lievens's later years do not match his early precocity though he regarded himself very highly. His official commissions reflect the elegant, light, and decorative manner adapted from the Flemings that is appealing but hardly as original as his youthful manner. His later portraits are also criticized as being shallow. A number of small landscapes painted during this period show the impact of other Flemings, including Brouwer.* He produced occasional genre pictures as well as etchings and woodcuts. One of his best last works is the Portrait of Sir Robert Kerr (dated 1652, Edinburgh, Scottish National Portrait Gallery). Lievens died in Amsterdam. |
Samples of Work
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