Background
January Baptist Bonnecroy was born in Antwerp as the son of the cloth merchant Willem Bonnecroy and Antonetta de la Forterie.
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Jean Bonnecroy
Edit ProfileEducation
He studied art from an early age but renounced an artistic career at the age of 20 to enter a Franciscans monastery in 1638.
Career
As he had become an orphan he was placed under guardianship and one of his guardians was the famous landscape painter Lucas van Uden. He entered into a contract of apprenticeship and was in 1644 enrolled as a pupil of Lucas van Uden. The next year he passed his master test and was registered as a painter in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
In 1658 he bought a house in Antwerp, which he resold in 1662.
He was still registered at the Antwerp Guild in 1665 but after that there is no trace of him in Antwerp. lieutenant is likely that he worked in Amsterdam and Brussels since he painted views of both of these cities.
He died after 1676 possibly in Brussels since a city view of Brussels by his hand shows Brussels in that year. Bonnecroy was also a skilled etcher.
The British Museum holds seven of his etches which were formerly attributed to his master Lucas van Uden.
The prints all depict landscapes with figures and were published by the Antwerp publisher Frans van den Wyngaerde, together with an eight print by Lucas van Uden.
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Born
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Died
1676 (aged 58) -
Nationality
Netherlands