Jan van Cleve (III) or Jan van Cleef (III) (6 January 1646 – 18 December 1716) was a Dutch-born Flemish painter who is known for his altarpieces, allegorical pictures and mythological scenes.
[Jan van Cleve (III)]
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 ...
He worked in Brussels at the beginning of his career and later moved to
Ghent
Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) 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 the Provinces of Belgium, province ...
.
[J.-J. Thonissen, ''Cleef, Jean van'']
in: Biographie nationale de Belgique, Volume 4, p. 141–142 .
Life
Van Cleve was born in
Venlo
Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), ...
in the duchy of
Guelders
The Duchy of Guelders (; ; ) is a historical duchy, previously county, of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the Low Countries.
Geography
The duchy was named after the town of Geldern (''Gelder'') in present-day Germany. Though the present pr ...
. Displaying from an early age an interest and facility in art, he went to Brussels where he joined the workshop of the Flemish artist
Luigi Primo who had worked for a long period of time in Italy. He is believed to have moved later to the workshop of
Gaspard de Crayer. While there is no documentary evidence for such apprenticeship, the stylistic closeness of van Cleve to de Crayer supports this fact. Van Cleve also completed and copied a number of works of de Crayer.
[ When de Crayer left Brussels for Ghent around 1664, van Cleve followed his master and established himself in Ghent where he resided for the rest of his life.][
After de Crayer died, van Cleve was commissioned to complete his master de Crayer's unfinished works in various churches and to finish the cartoons for the tapestries ordered by the French king ]Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
from the Antwerp tapestry workshops. He travelled to France to show his cartoons to the king in person. He remained for three months in Paris.[
He worked in Ghent until his death at the age of 70.][
]
Works
Jan van Cleve painted altarpieces, allegorical pictures and mythological scenes.[ He was a prolific painter who was commissioned to produce many religious works for the churches and convents in ]Flanders
Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...
and Brabant. His style was close to that of his master de Crayer. His best works are in the convent of the Black Nuns in Ghent and the town hall of Ghent.[
]
External links
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleef, Jan van
1646 births
1716 deaths
Flemish history painters
People from Venlo
Painters from Limburg (Netherlands)