Background
January van Hoogstraten was born in Dordrecht. According to Houbraken he was the son of the painter Dirk van Hoogstraten and became a master in the Dordrecht Guild of Saint Luke in 1649.
January van Hoogstraten was born in Dordrecht. According to Houbraken he was the son of the painter Dirk van Hoogstraten and became a master in the Dordrecht Guild of Saint Luke in 1649.
He had finished the servant girl, and went to the market to find a proper Saint Pieter.
Not speaking German, he managed to convince a suitable beggar to follow him back to his studio, and the good man thought he would receive alms at the door, but when he was beckoned upstairs and saw the skull and other vanitas attributes set out on a table, he panicked and ran outside, where Samuel van Hoogstraten, just returning and thinking he was a thief, managed to catch him. The townspeople had a good laugh when all was settled, and the poor man was finally convinced to sit in a role as Saint Peter, but the whole while he was so frightened and nervous that the painting was well executed indeed. Despite the success of the painting, the poor man refused to sit again for the Hoogstraten brothers, because he felt he had seen death and the devil there.
According to the RKD he is known for landscapes and seascapes.
He was in Dordrecht until 1652 and travelled to Vienna, where he died.