National Gallery of Art

Biography

Born on January 13, 1596, Jan Josephsz. van Goyen began training as an artist in his native city of Leiden at the early age of ten. The series of teachers with whom he studied included, according to Orlers' near-contemporary account (see person bibliography), Isaac van Swanenburgh (c. 1538-1614). Orlers also says that Van Goyen spent a year in France before going to Haarlem, where he is known to have been a student of Esaias van de Velde (c. 1591-1630) in 1617; his early works closely resemble those by Esaias.

By 1618, Van Goyen had returned to Leiden, where he was married that same year to Annetje Willemsdr. van Raelst. His name occurs frequently in Leiden documents between 1625 and 1632. In 1625 he bought a house on the St. Peterskerkstraat, which he sold in 1629 to the marine painter Jan Porcellis (c. 1584-1632). Probably in the summer of 1632 he moved to The Hague, becoming a citizen two years later. Although he also worked in Haarlem in 1634, at the house of Salomon van Ruysdael's brother Isaack (1599-1677), he is thereafter only recorded in The Hague. He bought a home there on the Wagenstraat in 1635 and built another the following year on the Dunne Bierkade, where Paulus Potter is known to have lived from 1649-1652. Although a prolific and successful painter, Van Goyen engaged throughout his life in various business ventures, usually unsuccessfully; these included art dealing, auction sales, and speculation in real estate and tulip bulbs.

During the 1630s, Van Goyen, along with the Haarlem artists Pieter de Molijn (1595-166) and Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/03-1670) developed a new approach to the representation of landscape that focused on local subjects and utilized a tonal palette, initiating what has come to be recognized as the golden age of Dutch landscape painting. Van Goyen was a highly respected figure in the artistic community of The Hague. In 1638 and 1640, he was chosen to be hoofdman of the painters' guild, and received further official recognition in 1651, when he was commissioned to paint a panoramic view of the city for the Burgomaster's room in the Town Hall. In 1649, both his daughters were married to artists, Margaretha to Jan Steen, and Maria to the still-life painter Jacques de Claeu (d. after 1665). Despite his artistic success, he died insolvent in The Hague on April 27, 1656. [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]

Bibliography

1641

Orlers, J. J. Beschrijvinge der Stadt Leyden. Leiden, 1641:373.

1753

Houbraken 1753, 1:166, 170; 2:111, 235; 3:13.

1907

Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 8(1927):1-323.

1941

Van De Waal, H. Jan Van Goyen. Palet Series. Amsterdam, 1941.

1972

Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen 1596-1656. Vols. 1 and 2. Amsterdam, 1972-1973.

1977

Jan van Goyen 1596-1656: Poet of the Dutch Landscape. Exh. cat. Alan Jacobs Gallery, London, 1977.

1981

Beck, Hans-Ulrich, M. L. Wurfbain, and W. L. van de Watering. Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: Conquest of Space. Exh. cat. Waterman Gallery, Amsterdam, 1981.

1987

Beck, Hans-Ulrich. Jan van Goyen 1596-1656. Vols. 3 and 4. Doornspijk, 1987-1991.

1987

Sutton, Peter C. et al. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1987: 317-332.

1992

MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. London, 1992: 143-144.

1995

Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 61.