Lodewijk de DeysterName variations: Louis de Deyster, Lodewyk de Deyster, Lodewijk Dedeyster (c. 1656 – 18 December 1711) 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 ...

draftsman, etcher, engraver, musical instrument maker and instrument maker.Louis de Deyster
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 painted biblical subjects and portraits. His Baroque paintings show a clear influence of Italian masters such as

Giordano Giordano may refer to: People *Giordano (name) *Giordano (footballer) (born 1993), Brazilian footballer *Umberto Giordano, or simply Giordano, Italian composer Businesses *Giordano International, a Hong Kong–based, global clothing retailer *Gio ...

, Maratta,

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 ...

and Flemish painters like

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

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 ...

and

Jan Boeckhorst Jan Boeckhorst or Johann Bockhorst (Münster, c. 1604 – Antwerp, 21 April 1668) was a Germany, German-born Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman who worked most of his career in Antwerp. He was a versatile artist who produced history pain ...

. He was also a dealer in fabrics.

Life

De Deyster was born around 1656 in

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 ...

as the son of Lodewijk and Cornelia van Heyschoten. He was a pupil of Jan Maes, a respected local artist. From 1682 to 1688, he lived and worked in Italy mostly in the company of his travel companion Antoon or Anthonie van den Eeckhoute. They spent time in Venice and Rome. In 1688 the pair returned to Bruges. Lodewijk de Deyster - Allegory of Sculpture

Lodewijk de Deyster - Allegory of Sculpture

He became a free-master in the local

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 ...

on 4 March 1688. He married on 29 August 1690 in the

Church of Our Lady, Bruges The Church of Our Lady () is a Roman Catholic church in Bruges, Belgium, dating mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Its tower remains the tallest structure in the city and the third tallest brickwork tower in the world (after St. Mary ...

, with Dorothea van den Eeckhoute, sister of his friend and travel-companion Antoon. The couple had four children: Maria-Magdalena (bapt. 28 March 1689), Anna Louisa (bapt. 29 August 1690), Lodewijk Antoon and Joost Eloi (both baptized on 1 December 1691; the boys died shortly afterwards on 7 and 10 December respectively). Anna Louisa also became a painter and musical instrument maker.Lodewijk de Deyster
at the British Museum De Deyster was also a harpsichord, violin and organ builder. In 1707, he was commissioned to complete the Jacob van Eynde organ in St. Anne's Church in Bruges. He also built the organs for the church of the Holy Cross and for the Bogarden Chapel. According to contemporary reports, his passion for making musical instruments instead of painting reduced him to poverty and when he returned to his native Bruges. He died in Bruges where he was buried on 20 December 1711 in the cemetery of the

St. Salvator's Cathedral St. Salvator's Cathedral (), also known as the Cathedral of the Saviour and St. Donat, is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Bruges, Belgium. The cathedral is dedicated to the ''Verrezen Zaligmaker'' (Dutch, 'risen saviour', cf. Latin ''salvator ...

Work

He painted mainly biblical subjects, in addition to some portraits and allegorical scenes. He painted many pictures for the churches of his native city. From his stay in Italy, he had brought with him a flamboyant Roman Baroque style. His treatment of light and shade in his paintings resembles that of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

. He drowns his figures in artificial

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 ...

. His style is further characterized by the dramatization of the characters and the soft form of the figures because of his use of

sfumato Sfumato ( , ; , i.e. 'blurred') is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissan ...

. There are three large paintings representing three scenes from the Passion and one of ''Elijah under the juniper tree'' by him in the

in Bruges. In the St. James's Church in Bruges, there are three paintings by de Deyster representing the ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

'', the ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

'', and the ''

Death of the Virgin The Death of the Virgin Mary is a common subject in Western Christian art, and is the equivalent of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Eastern Orthodox art. This depiction became less common as the doctrine of the Assumption gained support in t ...

''. In the Church of St Anne, also in Bruges, there is a ''Martydom of St Sebastian''.Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert, ''La peinture à Bruges; guide historique et critique''
Brussels, Paris, Librairie nationale d'art et d'histoire, G. van Oest et cie., 1922, pp. 63-64 Lodewijk de Deyster - The Death of Holofernes

Lodewijk de Deyster - The Death of Holofernes

He created 16 etchings with old testament themes. He also produced one known mezzotint. His prints share with his paintings high drama and energy, with protagonists arranged in complex poses. Just as de Deyster applied his paint with freedom and spontaneity, so did he etch the plate.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deyster, Louis De Artists from Bruges 17th-century Flemish painters 1650s births 1711 deaths Businesspeople from Bruges Flemish musical instrument makers Draughtsmen from the Holy Roman Empire