Background
Jan van Goyen was born on January 13, 1596, in Leiden, Netherlands. He was a son of a shoemaker.
van Goijen
Jan van Goyen was born on January 13, 1596, in Leiden, Netherlands. He was a son of a shoemaker.
Apprenticed from the age of ten, Jan van Goyen had several masters. About 1617, he went to Haarlem in order to study under Esaias van de Velde, an important innovator in the Haarlem movement of realistic landscape painting.
Jan van Goyen's works between 1621 and 1625 are sometimes hard to distinguish from those of his teacher, Esaias van de Velde. They are colorful, detailed views of villages and roads, usually busy with people. The brightest example of his works from that period is "Winter" (1621).
It was Van Goyen's usual practice to sign or monogram and date his paintings. He traveled extensively through the Netherlands and beyond, recording his impressions in sketchbooks, occasionally with dates and often depicting recognizable scenes. Thus, the chronology of his development is clear. His paintings of the late 1620's show a steady advance from the strong colors and scattered organization of his early works toward tonality and greater simplicity and unity of composition. By 1630, Jan had started to paint monochromes in golden brown or pale green. Also, he played a leading part in the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting.
In 1631, van Goyen settled in The Hague, where he became a citizen in 1634. The simplicity, airiness and unification of his compositions continued to increase in his abundant production of dune landscapes, river views, seascapes, town views and winter landscapes. "The River View" (1636) displays a river so open and extensive as to suggest the sea, with reflections, that prolong the vast and luminous sky. In its monumentalization of humble structures and its composition, built on a firm scaffolding of horizontal and vertical forces, it forecast at this early date developments, that dominated landscape painting in the 1650's and later. In the "Village and Dunes" (1647), the traditional double-diagonal composition still exists, but it is dominated by horizontal and vertical accents. Stronger contrasts of light and dark replace the earlier tonality.
The commission in 1651 to paint a panoramic view of The Hague for the Burgomaster's Room shows the high regard conferred upon van Goyen. He was enormously productive: well over 1,000 of his paintings still exist and almost as many drawings. In the last year of his life, van Goyen produced an eloquent new style, in which powerful forms stand out against the radiant sky and water in an exquisitely balanced composition.
Despite the fact, that the painter was popular among his public and his works were in high demand, he died insolvent, perhaps because of losses in his various business ventures.
Jan van Goyen gained prominence as one of the most gifted landscapists in the Netherlands during the early 17th century. He created more than 1,000 paintings and drawings. Jan's most famous works include "Fishing Boats in an Estuary at Dusk", "Typical Dutch bridge with anglers", "River Scene", "Panorama of The Hague", "Banks of a Canal" and others.
Today, the painter's works are kept in different museums and galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and others.
Landscape with Two Oaks
Winter Scene with a Sledge in the Foreground
River Scene with a Tower
A View of Arnhem
A River Scene
A River Scene, with a Hut on An Island
Cottages and Fishermen by a River
A River Estuary
The Beach Near Scheveningen
Landscape with Figures
Winter
River Scene
Summer
Landscape with Cottages on the Dunes
A Scene on the Ice by a Drinking Booth
Near Dordrecht
Winter Landscape with Horse Drawn Sleigh
View of Dordrecht with the Grote Kerk Across the Maas
Panorama of The Hague
Jan van Goyen always sought more income, not only through related work as an art dealer and auctioneer, but also by speculating in tulips and real estate, that in van Goyen's experience led to enormous debts.
Quotes from others about the person
"In his freely composed seascapes of the 1650's, he reached the apex of his creative work, producing paintings of striking perfection." — H. U. Beck, an art historian
In 1618, Jan married Annette van Aalst. Also, he had a son-in-law, Jan Steen, a painter, and a daughter, whose name was Margaret.
