Jacobus Coelemans or Jacob Coelemans, known in France as Jacques Coelemans (

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, 23 August 1654 –

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

, 11 February 1732) was a

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

engraver and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

, known for his reproductive prints after famous painters and portraits. He trained in his native Antwerp and later moved to Aix-en-Provence in France where he worked for the remainder of his life.Jacobus Coelemans
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 ...

Life

Jacob Coelemans was registered as a pupil of Frederik Bouttats the Younger at the Antwerp

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was iden ...

in the Guild year 1672–1673.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, ''De Liggeren en andere Historische Archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onder Zinkspreuk: "Wy Jonsten Versaemt" afgeschreven en bemerkt door Ph. Rombouts en Th. Van Lerius, Advokaet, onder de bescherming van den raed van bestuer der koninklyke Akademie van beeldende Kunsten, van gezegde Stad''
Volume 2, Antwerp, 1872, pp. 420, 424 Bouttats was a print artist, art dealer (person), painter and mezzotint artist from an extensive Antwerp dynasty of artists.Frederik Bouttats (II)
at the

He was never registered as a master in the

of Antwerp. On 20 October 1680 he joined the 'Sodaliteit van de Bejaerde Jongmans', a fraternity for bachelors established by the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

order. He must have enjoyed a certain reputation as he moved in 1690 to Aix-en-Provence in France to which he was called by

Jean-Baptiste Boyer d’Éguilles Jean-Baptiste () is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was Kin ...

. His patron was Attorney General of the Parliament of Provence and a famous art collector and scholar. Boyer d'Aguilles commissioned him to engrave his entire art collection. He was thereby completing the work which was commenced by the French engraver Sébastien Barras and Boyer d'Aguilles himself, who was also an amateur engraver.Edm. no Busscher, ''Jacques Coelemans'', ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' (; ) is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ''Nouvelle Biographie Nationale'' (, ...

'', vol. 4] (Brussels, 1873), 261–263 He died in Aix-en-Provence on 11 February 1732.

Work

Coelemans worked as an engraver and etcher who mainly produced reproductive prints after paintings made by other artists. The commission by Boyer d'Aguilles required him to reproduce paintings in all genres. He was a versatile printmaker who was able to complete the commission successfully. The plates that he executed for Boyer d'Aguilles were published after his patron's death by Coelemans, in a folio volume containing 118 plates, under the title .

Pierre-Jean Mariette Pierre-Jean Mariette (; 7 May 1694 – 10 September 1774) was a collector of and dealer in old master prints, a renowned connoisseur, especially of prints and drawings, and a chronicler of the careers of French Italian and Flemish artists. He ...

published a second edition in 1744, adding a note on the former owner of the gallery and an explanation of the paintings reproduced. A third edition was printed by Brother Basan, but the plates were too worn to provide good proofs. Most of the engravings by Sébastien Barras and those of Boyer d'Aguilles are missing from these two editions. He executed his engravings in a vigorous style, with sometimes too much black. Almost all of his prints show a judicious sense of line and a good understanding of

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 ...

. He was scrupulous in his attempt to accurately reproduce the work of the Flemish, French or Italian masters in the Boyer d'Aguilles' collection. He is generally recognized for the brilliance of his palette.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coelemans, Jacobus 17th-century Flemish engravers Artists from Antwerp 1654 births 1732 deaths Printmakers from the Holy Roman Empire