Jacob van Oost or Jacob van Oost the Elder (1603–1671) was a Flemish painter of

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and B ...

s and

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s. He was the most important painter of

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

in the 17th century through his portraits of members of the local bourgeois and his many altarpieces made in the spirit of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

. He also created

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

paintings of musicians and card players for the open market.Matthias Depoorter, ''Jacob van Oost I''
at Baroque in the Southern Netherlands

Life

Jacob van Oost was born in

as the son of Johannes van Oost en Gheeraerdyne Weyts. His family was well-off. It is not clear who was his master but he was probably a pupil of his brother Frans van Oost.Hans Vlieghe. "Oost, Jacob van, I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 16 Jul. 2014 Jacob van Oost became master of the Bruges Guild of St. Luke in 1621. He left that year for Italy. The work he made during his Italian residence has not been identified. During the five years he spent in Rome he may have studied under

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci ( , , ; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother Agostino Carracci, Agostino and cousin Ludovico Carracci, Ludovico (with whom the Ca ...

.Jacob Van Oost - A Baroque painter in Bruges
at Codart After his return to Bruges in 1628 he became a 'stedehouder' (director) of the local Guild of St. Luke on 13 October 1629. He married Jaquemyne Van Overdille in Bruges in 1630. His wife died the next year leaving him one son Maarten. In 1633 Jacob van Oost married Maria van Tollenaere. The couple had six children. His sons Jacob the Younger and Willem became notable painters in their own right. His grandson Dominique Joseph van Oost was a portrait and history painter active in Lille. Jacob van Oost was commissioned to restore

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...

's famous Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (1436) in the former Church of Saint-Donaas (now in the

Groeningemuseum The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum in Bruges, Belgium, built on the site of the medieval Eekhout Abbey. It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian painting covering six centuries, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museu ...

) in Bruges in 1632–33.Jacob I Van Oost (1603-1671): Case study: Portraits of Everard Tristram and his wife Wilhelmine Bezoete (1646)
at Codart Between 1633 and 1662 Jacob van Oost held various positions in the Guild of St. Luke including various term as the dean of the Guild.Jacob van Oost (I)
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History 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 ...

From 1651 until his death he was the official city painter of Bruges. His registered pupils were his sons Jacob the Younger and Willem, and the painters Boudewijn Bodet, Franschoes Gheilliaert, Jan Maes, Jan Baptist van Meunincxhove, Jan Ramon and Arnoldus de Roose. Van Oost died in Bruges.

Work

Jacob van Oost was a prolific painter who made portraits for the local bourgeois and history paintings. He is primarily known for the altarpieces in the spirit of the

Counter Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

and his portraits. A small number of paintings, mostly with secular, genre-style themes such as interiors with figures (musical companies, card players, fortune tellers etc.), was likely aimed at private individuals and possibly for the open market. He also made copies after van Dyck and Rubens. Van Oost was the leading 17th-century painter from Bruges. His work was strongly influenced by early Baroque painters such as

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

and his follower

Bartolomeo Manfredi Bartolomeo Manfredi (baptised 25 August 1582 – 12 December 1622) was an Italian painter, a leading member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) of the early 17th century. Life Manfredi was born in Ostiano, ...

whose work he had studied during his stay in Italy. The influence of Caravaggio can be seen in the

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

effects as well as the non-idealised figures. An example of this is the 1630 ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' (

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

). His genre scenes in the 1630s showed the influence of Bartolomeo Manfredi. An example is the '' Card Players'' (1634, private collection). After this early Caravaggesque influence, his work developed towards more monumental figures and a more classicist treatment that reflected the work of

and his follower

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoe ...

. From the 1650s, his work started to display greater emotionality, the use of dramatic spatial effects and a palette closer to Venetian art. Van Oost's paintings of that period show the influence of

Federico Barocci Federico Barocci (also written Barozzi) ( – 30 September 1612) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly esteemed and influential, and foresha ...

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

and

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

. A few times he even simply copied van Dyck's compositions. While this stylistic development was quite common among contemporary Flemish artists, the clear structure and strong modelling of van Oost's work make his manner distinctive. While his portraits are generally rather formulaic the '' Portrait of a Bruges Family'' (1645,

, Bruges) reveals a careful composition. Through its emblematic and monumental character it can be regarded ais a masterpiece of high Baroque painting. Jacob van Oost I - Christ Crowned with Thorns

Jacob van Oost I - Christ Crowned with Thorns

Many of his religious works can still be seen in the churches of Bruges. The St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges holds 13 paintings by Jacob Van Oost, which can be viewed ''in situ'' throughout the church. His paintings can also be seen in museums throughout the world including the

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin The (, Painting Gallery) is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in 1830, and the cur ...

, the

in Bruges, the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

in London, the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in Paris, the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

and the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oost, Jacob van 1603 births 1671 deaths Artists from the Spanish Netherlands Flemish Baroque painters Flemish history painters Flemish portrait painters Painters from Bruges

Life

Work

References

Further reading

External links