Jan Peeters the Elder or Johannes Peeters (24 April 1624 – 1677) was a Flemish
Baroque painter
Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival,[seascape
A seascape is a photograph, painting, or other work of art which depicts the sea, in other words an example of marine art. The word originated as a formation from landscape, which was first used of images of land in art. By a similar deve ...]
s often depicting stormy seas and shipwrecks as well as for his topographical drawings, many of which were engraved by contemporary printmakers and published by the Antwerp printers.
[Hans Vlieghe (1998). ]
Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585–1700
'. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. , pp. 198–199.[Margarita Russell. "Peeters, Bonaventura, I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. ]Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. Web. 16 October 2014
Life

Peeters was born in
Antwerp as the son of Cornelis Peeters and Catharina van Eelen. He was the brother of the painters
Gillis,
Bonaventura I and
Catharina Catharina is a feminine given name, the Dutch and Swedish spelling of the name Catherine. In the Netherlands, people use a great number of short forms in daily life, including ''Carine'', ''Catelijne'', ''Cato'', ''Ina'', ''Ineke'', ''Kaat'', ''Kaa ...
. He studied with his brothers Bonaventura and Gillis as well as Joannes Boots. He became a master of Antwerp's
Guild of St. 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 identi ...
in 1645.
[
]
He was active in Hoboken near Antwerp from 1645 to 1654, likely working in his brother Bonaventura's workshop. In 1654 he married Catherine Buseliers and moved back to Antwerp. The couple had two children, Johannes Franciscus and Isabella.[ Jan Peeters (I)]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center ...
Johannes Franciscus became a painter about whom very little is known with certainty.
In 1659 Jan Peeters spent six months in the Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
drawing panoramas of several towns and harbours. These were later engraved by Gaspar Bouttats
Gaspar Bouttats the Elder or Gaspard Bouttats the ElderName variations: Caspar Bouttats, Gasper Bouttats, Gaspard-Martin Bouttats and Jasper Bottats (c. 1640 – 1695–96) was a Flemish printmaker and engraver of the Baroque period.
Life
He ...
.[About Jan Peeters I]
at Jean Moust Because of his many drawings of distant locations he is believed to have travelled throughout France, Italy, Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Su ...
, Cairo and Jerusalem.[ However, it is equally possible that for some of these drawings he relied on designs of other artists, such as his nephew Bonaventura II who was reportedly a merchant sailor as well as an artist.
He was the teacher of ]Adriaen van Bloemen
Adriaen van Bloemen or Adriaen Bloem (baptized on 27 February 1639 – c. 1697) was a Flemish painter, print designer, draughtsman and engraver. He was mainly a portrait artist who created individual and group portraits. He left his native Antw ...
. He died in Antwerp.[
]
Work
Jan's brother Bonaventura was a master in the painting of dramatic shipwrecks with dark billowy clouds. Jan was trained by his brother and painted marine subjects in a style similar to that of his brother without reaching, however, the same level of painterly excellence. His subjects ranged from domestic marine scenes to Mediterranean settings. Some paintings represent naval battles and naval attacks on fortresses. He painted rough seas with shipwrecks and ships sailing in calm waters. He was good at representing atmospheric conditions, especially of clouds.[ He also painted city views as well as some portraits.][ It is likely that the landscapes with fantastic architecture and figures in the collection of the ]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. It is the largest ...
attributed to him are in fact the work by the Flemish architectural painter Jacob Balthasar Peeters
Jacob Balthasar Peeters, also known as Jacob Peeters or Jacobus Peeters (1660-61 – after 1721) was a Flemish painter who specialized in architectural paintings depicting imaginary Renaissance and Baroque palaces populated with elegant figures w ...
.
Jan Peeters is further known for his topographical drawings of various locations that were used as designs by different engravers. Wenceslaus Hollar
Wenceslaus Hollar (23 July 1607 – 25 March 1677) was a prolific and accomplished Bohemian graphic artist of the 17th century, who spent much of his life in England. He is known to German speakers as ; and to Czech speakers as . He is partic ...
engraved in 1651 a set of six plates of ports etched by Hollar after various artists after drawings by Peeters and other artists. The Flemish engraver Gaspar Bouttats
Gaspar Bouttats the Elder or Gaspard Bouttats the ElderName variations: Caspar Bouttats, Gasper Bouttats, Gaspard-Martin Bouttats and Jasper Bottats (c. 1640 – 1695–96) was a Flemish printmaker and engraver of the Baroque period.
Life
He ...
etched the 14 plates for a folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
volume of city views of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas published in 1672 by the publisher Jacobus Peeters
A Jacobus is an English gold coin of the reign of James I, worth 25 shillings. The name of the coin comes from the Latin inscription surrounding the King's head on the obverse of the coin, IACOBUS D G MAG BRIT FRA ET HI REX ("James, by the grace o ...
under the title ''Views from Arabia, Judea, Chaldea, Syria, Jerusalem, Antiochia, Aleppo, Mecca etc.'' after drawings by Jan Peeters (I).
Bouttats also used drawings by Jan Peeters (I) for the 1674 publication ' (Scene of the Cities and the Forts of the United Netherlands with the Neighbouring Places like Brabant, Flanders and on the Rhine and Conquered Elsewhere by the Weapons of the Great and Mighty Sovereign States under the Leadership of the Very Noble Prince of Orange). This publication contained views of the major cities and forts in the Dutch Republic, Flanders and along the Rhine.[''Winschoten'' from the Series Thooneel der steden ende sterckten van 't Vereenigt Nederlandt met d'aengrensende plaetsen "]
at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
website
Drawings by Jan Peeters were the basis for some of the prints engraved by Gaspar Bouttats and Lucas Vorsterman II
Lucas Vorsterman II, Lucas Vorsterman the Younger or Lucas Vorsterman Junior (1624 – between 1666 and 1676) was a Flemish Baroque engraver and draughtsman. He produced engravings after the work of the leading painters of the next generation an ...
for the publication by Jacob Peeters in Antwerp of several sets of prints issued under the title ' This was a series of maps and views of locations in Southern Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East.Print from the 'Description des principales villes''
at the Rijksmuseum
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peeters, Jan
Flemish Baroque painters
Flemish marine artists
Painters from Antwerp
1624 births
1677 deaths