Jan Brueghel the Younger: biography, paintings

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Unlike the works of his contemporaries Rubens and Caravaggio, who created large-scale canvases, the tiny paintings of the seventeenth-century artist Jan Brueghel the Younger, for the most part, took their place not in galleries. Brueghel's distinctive aesthetic style set the standard and technique for producing inexpensive paintings that were popular. It was the characteristic features of his work that made the artist a central figure in the art world of the seventeenth century. Jan Brueghel the Younger dedicated his career to continuing his father's style of painting.

Young years

Jan Brueghel the Younger was born in Antwerp in the autumn of 1601, in the family of the Baroque artist Jan Brueghel and his first wife Isabella de Jode. He grew up in his father's workshop, was familiar with the techniques of the time, and showed great promise as an artist. Since he was the son and great-grandson of court painters, his natural abilities were not in doubt. Therefore he wassent to Milan in 1620 to meet with Cardinal Federico Borromeo, one of the patrons of the Brueghel family.

Initially, Jan and his younger brother, Ambrosius, created a series of detailed landscape paintings in the characteristic manner of their father. At that time, there was a great demand for large, decorative landscapes and the work of artists who sought to display the smallest details, working in the spirit of the elder Jan Brueghel. To meet demand, the artist would sometimes copy his father's work and sell it with his signature. As a result, it is often difficult to distinguish between their styles, although several of his paintings show lighter colors and less accurate drawing.

Career

After studying under his father, in 1624 Brueghel the Younger went to Italy, traveling with his childhood friend Anthony van Dyck. It was there that he heard of his father's sudden death due to a cholera epidemic. The artist returned home to take over the workshop and studio. He immediately sold all the finished canvases and completed all the unfinished works himself. In 1626 he became a member of the Antwerp branch of the Guild of Saint Luke.

In 1627 Brueghel the Younger married Anna Maria. She was the daughter of Abraham Janssen, a Flemish painter. They had 11 children in total.

By 1630, Brueghel owned a successful business, running a large studio staffed by many assistants who had their own apprentices. Like his father, he eventually became Dean of Antwerp in 1631.guild, having received at the end of the same year from the French court an order to write a cycle of paintings about Adam.

Life and work

Although records confirm that Brueghel spent most of the 1650s working in Paris, very little information survives about how long he stayed there or what he painted. There is evidence of the artist's employment at the Austrian court in 1651, but the documentary evidence is very inaccurate. What is known for certain is that he returned to Antwerp by 1657 and remained there for another two decades until his death.

Like his father, he believed in collaborating with other artists and worked early in his career with Peter Paul Rubens (his godfather), Abraham Janssen, Hendrick van Balen and his son-in-law David Teniers Jr. Although he tried to stay within the boundaries and style of his father's work, the quality of Brueghel's art never reached the same standard.

The result of gaps in his biography was the discovery in the Hermitage of two of his previously unknown paintings, which was reflected in the book written by Klaus Ertz “Jan Brueghel the Younger. Two unknown paintings from the late period of the artist's work.”

Death and legacy

After the age of 77, Jan Brueghel the Younger died in Antwerp in 1678.

He is best known for his landscapes with allegorical content (based on the elements, seasons, feelings and abundance), depictions of rural life as well as floralstill lifes. He was also the first to introduce animals into landscapes. His paintings show great depth, use of rich colors and carefully crafted exquisite detail, whether it be Insect Study, Basket of Flowers, or Allegory of Earth and Water.

Among all the works, the following paintings by Jan Brueghel the Younger can be distinguished with the names: “Allegory of Air”, “Allegory of War”, “Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase”, “Rural Landscape”, “Diana after the Hunt”. No less famous: "The Temptation of Adam", "Peasant Compound", "Seashore with the ruins of the castle" and others.

Paintings by Jan Brueghel the Younger are in the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Reichsmuseum in Amsterdam, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, Philadelphia and Tel Aviv Museums of Art.

Characteristic features of painting

Although Jan Brueghel the Younger remained close to his father's work, he nevertheless updated his approach to painting, adapting to the desires of his contemporaries. He replaced the Mannerist style, prevalent until then, with a more realistic, simple and carefree art.

In his exceptionally elegant flower paintings, he eschewed compact arrangements and treated each ornate flower as a whole, revealing the beauty of each. Therefore, he depicted a space where more freely organized forms were drawn with a succession of precise and rapid strokes andhad well-drawn contours.

Thanks to the incredible softness of his palette, his art is great in landscapes with rivers or forests, animated figures, and in still lifes.