Jacob de Wit (19 December 1695 – 12 November 1754) was a Dutch artist and interior decorator who painted many religious scenes.

Biography

Jacob de Wit was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, and became famous for his door and ceiling paintings. He lived on the

Keizersgracht The Keizersgracht (; "Emperor's canal") is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the second of the three main Amsterdam canals that together form the Grachtengordel, or canal belt, and lies between the inner Herengracht and outer Prinseng ...

in Amsterdam, and many of the buildings on the Keizersgracht still have door or ceiling paintings done by him. Since many of the families who lived in Amsterdam in those days had country villas, de Wit also painted in houses in the fashionable areas of

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

and the Vecht river. According to the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

he was the pupil of Albert van Spiers in Amsterdam and Jacob van Hal in Antwerp where he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1714.Jacob de Wit
in the

While in Antwerp, he made a series of watercolor sketches of the Rubens ceilings in the Carolus Borromeuskerk in Antwerp. After the church was struck by lightning in 1718 these became a historical document, and his pupil Jan Punt later engraved his sketches and published them in 1751.''De Plafonds of Gallery-stukken uit de Kerk der P.P. Jesuiten, te Antwerpen, geschilderd door P.P. Rubens, geteekend door J. de Wit, en op koper gebragt door Jan Punt'', Amsterdam, 1751 His pupils were Jan de Groot (painter from The Hague), Dionys van Nijmegen, Jan Punt, Pieter Tanjé, and the brothers

Frans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of '' François'' or '' Franciscus''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572� ...

and

Jacob Xavery Jacob Xavery (27 April 1736, The Hague – after 1771) was a Dutch painter. Xavery was the son of sculptor Jan Baptist Xavery and pupil of Jakob de Wit. He practised in Amsterdam, Breda, and The Hague, and also spent time in Paris. He occasiona ...

. Jacob de Wit died in Amsterdam in 1754. Tako Hajo Jelgersma was his follower.

Major works

*Baptism of Christ in the Jorda

1716) – Chalk and pen drawing *Adoration of the Shepherd

(1726) – Oil on canvas *Holy Family and Trinity, also : The Return from Egyp

(1726) – Oil on canvas *Allegory of Transienc

(1733) – Oil on canvas *'' Moses Elects Seventy Elders'' (1737) – Oil on canvas

Location of paintings

*One of his paintings for a door in

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. In 2021, it had a population of 27,545. Located just south of the city of Haarlem on the border with South Holland, it is one of the richest ...

now hangs in Uppsala, Sweden, in the

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

museum. *A set of paintings of the four seasons depicting cherubs painted in a three-dimensional monochrome style now hangs at

Hinton Ampner Hinton Ampner is a village and country house estate with gardens and former civil parish, now in the parish of Bramdean and Hinton Ampner, in the City of Winchester, Winchester district, in the county of Hampshire, England. It is near New Alres ...

house in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. *Another of his three-dimensional monochrome style cherub paintings hangs in

Kingston Lacy Kingston Lacy is a country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. It was for many years the family seat of the Bankes family who lived nearby at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War after its incumbent ...

house in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. * Old City Hall (The Hague) *

Museum Willet-Holthuysen Museum Willet-Holthuysen is a located on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam famous ring of canals is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. History The house was built for Jacob Hop, mayor of Amsterdam, around 1685. He was not the last mayor ...

References

Jacob de Wit
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wit, Jacob De 1695 births 1754 deaths 18th-century Dutch painters 18th-century Dutch male artists Dutch male painters Dutch Christians Painters from Amsterdam Painters from Antwerp