J(oh)an and Jacob van Huchtenburg (also known as Hughtenburg or Hugtenburg(h)) were two
Dutch Golden Age painters in the second half of the seventeenth century. Both brothers were natives of
Haarlem, moved to Paris, but died in Amsterdam. The main source about their lives is from
Arnold Houbraken. Some of the information from the 19th century is contradictive.
Jacob van Huchtenburg (1644, Haarlem - bur. January 8, 1675,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
) studied under
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre ...
. In 1662 he went to Italy and stayed in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
until 1667. On his way back to Holland he stayed in Paris for more than a year, where he probably met up with his brother Jan. In 1669 he joined the Haarlem
artists' guild. His pictures are probably confounded with those of his brother. He became well-to-do and lived on Prinsengracht. One is in the
Brukenthal Museum
The Brukenthal National Museum ( ro, Muzeul Național Brukenthal; german: Brukenthalmuseum) is a museum in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, established in the late 18th century by Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803) in his city palace. Baron Bruken ...
,
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
.
Jan van Huchtenburg (bapt. November 20, 1647, Haarlem - bur. July 2, 1733, Amsterdam), was a famous Dutch horse and battle painter, like
Esaias van de Velde
Esaias van de Velde (17 May 1587 (baptized) – 18 November 1630 (buried)
) was a Dutch landscape painter.
Biography
He was born in Amsterdam, where his Flemish father Hans had fled as a Protestant in 1585. He probably studied under his fathe ...
and
Philip Wouwermans. He was first taught by
Thomas Wijck
Thomas Wijck (also Thomas Wijk, or Thomas Wyck; 1616–1677) was a Dutch painter of port views and genre paintings.
Biography
Wijck was born into an artist family and received his training from his father. He journeyed to Italy, presumably by 16 ...
. On his way to visit his brother in Rome, he may not have got further than Paris, where he served under
Antony Francis van der Meulen in the
Manufacture des Gobelins
The Gobelins Manufactory () is a historic tapestry factory in Paris, France. It is located at 42 avenue des Gobelins, near Les Gobelins métro station in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally established on the site as a medieval ...
employing him for illustrating,
sketching or
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...
ing.
In 1670 he settled at Haarlem, where he married Elisabeth Mommes. It seems he practised and kept a dealers shop in Haarlem or in the Hague. His style had now merged into an imitation of Wouwerman and Van der Meulen, which could not fail to produce pretty pictures of hunts and robber camps, the faculty of painting horses and men in action and varied dress being the chief point of attraction. Huchtenburg assisted
Gerrit Berckheyde
Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde (1638 – 10 June 1698) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, active in Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague, who is best known today for his cityscapes.
Biography
Berckheyde was born and died in Haarlem. Chris ...
and painted his people and horses.
Later Huchtenburg ventured on cavalry skirmishes and engagements of regular troops generally, and these were admired by
Prince Eugene of Savoy and
King William III
William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the ...
, who gave the painter sittings, and commissioned him to record on canvas the chief incidents of the battles they fought upon the continent of Europe. When he died at
Bloemgracht
The Bloemgracht () is a canal in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
It connects the Prinsengracht with the Lijnbaansgracht and runs between and parallel to Nieuwe Leliestraat and Bloemstraat in the Amsterdam-Centrum district.
T ...
in the
Jordaan in 1733, Huchtenburg had done much by his pictures and prints to make Prince Eugene, King William and
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
popular. Though clever in depicting a mile or a skirmish of dragoons, he remained second to Philip Wouvermans in accuracy of drawing, and inferior to Van der Meulen in the production of landscapes. But, nevertheless, he was a clever and spirited master, with great facility of hand and considerable natural powers of observation.
![Huchtenburg Southern landscape](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Huchtenburg_Southern_landscape.jpg)
The earliest date on his pictures is 1674, when he executed the Stag-Hunt in the
Museum of Berlin, and the Fight with Robbers in the
Liechtenstein Museum
The Liechtenstein Museum is a private art museum in Vienna, Austria. It contains much of the art collection of its owners, the Princely Family of Liechtenstein, rulers of the principality of Liechtenstein. It includes important European works of ar ...
at Vienna. A Skirmish at Fleurus (1690) in the Brussels gallery seems but the precursor of larger and more powerful works, such as the
Siege of Namur (1695)
The 1695 Siege of Namur or Second Siege of Namur took place during the Nine Years' War between 2 July and 4 September 1695. Its capture by the French in the 1692 and recapture by the Grand Alliance in 1695 are often viewed as the defining e ...
in the
Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
* Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...
at Vienna, where William III is seen in the foreground accompanied by
Max Emmanuel, the Bavarian
elector
Elector may refer to:
* Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors
* Elector, a member of an electoral college
** Confederate elector, a member of ...
. Three years before, Huchtenburg had had sittings from Prince Eugene and William III. After 1696 he regularly served as court painter to Prince Eugene, and we have at
Galleria Sabauda
The Galleria Sabauda is an art collection in the Italian city of Turin, which contains the royal art collections amassed by the House of Savoy over the centuries. It is located on Via XX Settembre, 86.
The museum, whose first directors were Rober ...
a series of ten or eleven canvases, all of the same size depicting the various battles of the great hero, commencing with the
Battle of Zenta
The Battle of Zenta, also known as the Battle of Senta, was fought on 11 September 1697, near Zenta, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Senta, Serbia), between Ottoman and Holy League armies during the Great Turkish War. The battle was the most deci ...
(1697),
Battle of Chiari
The Battle of Chiari was fought on 1 September 1701 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The engagement was part of Prince Eugene of Savoy's campaign to seize the Spanish controlled Duchy of Milan in the Italian peninsula, and had followed ...
(1701),
Battle of Luzzara
The Battle of Luzzara took place in Lombardy on 15 August 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession, between a combined French and Savoyard army under Louis Joseph, duc de Vendôme, and an Imperial force under Prince Eugene.
Conflict in ...
(1702),
Battle of Blenheim (1704),
Battle of Cassano (1705)
The Battle of Cassano took place on 16 August 1705, during the War of the Spanish Succession, near Cassano d'Adda, in Lombardy, Italy. It was fought between a French army of 22,000 commanded by the duc de Vendôme and an Imperial force of 24,000 ...
,
Battle of Turin
The siege of Turin took place from June to September 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, when a French army led by Louis de la Feuillade besieged the Savoyard capital of Turin. The campaign by Prince Eugene of Savoy that led to i ...
(1706),
Battle of Oudenaarde (1708),
Battle of Malplaquet
The Battle of Malplaquet took place on 11 September 1709 during the War of the Spanish Succession and was fought between a French army commanded by the Duke of Villars and a Grand Alliance force under the Duke of Marlborough. In one of the blo ...
(1709),
Battle of Petrovaradin
The Battle of Petrovaradin also known as the Battle of Peterwardein, took place on 5 August 1716 during the Austro-Turkish War when the Ottoman army besieged the Habsburgs-controlled fortress of Petrovaradin on the Military Frontier of the Hab ...
(1716) ending with the
Battle of Belgrade (1717).
Had the
Duke of Marlborough
General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...
been fond of art he would doubtless have possessed many works of our artist. All that remained in 1911 at
Blenheim Palace, however, was a couple of sketches of battles, which were probably sent to
Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
by his great contemporary.
In 1911, the pictures of Huchtenburg were not very numerous in public galleries. There was one in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
, London, another at the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
. But Copenhagen had four, Dresden six, Gotha two, and Munich had the well-known composition of
Tallart taken Prisoner at
Blenheim in 1704.
Notes
References
Information at the Netherlands Institute for Art History*
Works
Britannica.comBattle of ChiariDorotheum.com (JPG)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huchtenburg, Jan van
1647 births
1733 deaths
1644 births
1675 deaths
Artists from Haarlem
Dutch Golden Age painters
Dutch male painters
Dutch war artists
17th-century war artists
18th-century war artists