January van Pee, was a Dutch Golden Age art dealer and genre painter.
Background
According to Houbraken he was the son of the Amsterdam art dealer Emanuel van Pee, a man with a title of lower nobility, whose father Justus van Pee of Brussels had been the private secretary of Margaret of Parma. Though his father had earned a title, there was little inheritance left for Emanuel when he died, so Emanuel started an art dealership to make a living, and moved to Amsterdam, where January van Pee was born and where he starting working for his father at a young age making copies of small cabinet paintings ("Dozynwerk", or "works of a dozen").
Career
Justus van Pee had been trained as a painter but was too nearsighted for the work. As a private secretary he astonished everyone by being able to read letters in the dark better than anyone else, despite his near-sightedness. January van Pee decided to go, but needed money for the trip.
Then he and De Nys travelled via Leiden and Rotterdam to Antwerp, where they went to all of the churches and monasteries to admire the work of Rubens, Jordaens, and Van Dijk.
Pee hired a begger to sit for an allegorical painting of Saint Peter, while De Nys bought some dead birds to make a hunting still life. They both sold and financed their trip this way, Pee earning 16 ducats and De Nys 18 ducats.
In 1659 he lived in Amsterdam. Van Pee was specialized as a copyist of Italian paintings and worked for Gerrit van Uylenburgh. when Gerard de Lairesse arrived in 1667.
Van Pee also made genre scenes of his own invention.
From 1684 he is registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke with many pupils.
Membership
Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
