Jacob Gillig (also spelled Jakob or Gellig; ca. 1636 – 24 July 1701) was a

Dutch Golden Age painter Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republi ...

of still lifes, usually of fish. Although he produced several portraits, it is for painting fish that he is best known. Gillig was born and died in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. He apparently did not begin painting until his twenties, never registered as a master with the Utrecht Guild of Painters, and worked a merchant and then as a prison warden. In Utrecht the city prison was next to the fish market. He married a daughter of

Abraham Willaerts Abraham Willaerts (c. 1603 - 18 October 1669) was a Dutch Baroque painter, mostly of marine and harbor scenes. He also painted a number of single and family portraits. Life Abraham Willaerts was born in Utrecht, the son of the painter Adam Wi ...

in 1661. According to Houbraken, he tried his hand at portrait painting, but his likenesses were not very like his subjects.Jakob Gellig biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the

Digital library for Dutch literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

His works, as in the example to the right, favored pyramidal compositions. These were much respected in Utrecht at the time, and several of his works were copied by

Abraham Mignon Abraham Mignon or Minjon (21 June 164027 March 1679), was a still life painter.Abraham Mignon
at the

References

1630s births 1701 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Dutch still life painters Painters from Utrecht (city) {{Netherlands-painter-stub