Jacob Grimmer (1526/26 – before May 1590) was a Flemish landscape painter and draughtsman. His rural scenes and landscapes of views around Antwerp marked an important development in 16th century Flemish landscape painting away from the

world landscape The world landscape, a translation of the German ''Weltlandschaft'', is a type of composition in Western painting showing an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. ...

with its fantastic panoramas and whimsically-shaped gigantic rocks towards greater simplicity and authenticity. His work influenced the next generation of Flemish landscape painters. Grimmer was a capable colorist who was able to create harmonic landscapes by using realistic colours and atmospheric values effectively.Jacob Grimmer, ''Allegory of Spring''
at De Jonckheere Gallery

Life

Jacob Grimmer was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

as the son of the small merchant Nicolaas and Elisabeth Cops.Frans Jozef Peter Van den Branden, ''Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool'', Antwerpen, 1883, p. 297-300 According to the early Flemish biographer Karel van Mander, Grimmer first learned to paint landscapes from

Matthys Cock Matthys Cock or Matthijs Wellens de Cock (c. 1505 – 1548) was a Flemish landscape painter and draughtsman. He is known for his landscapes, marine art and architectural drawings.Christian van den Queborn, both of Antwerp.Jaques Grimmaer, landscape painter of Antwerp
in: Karel van Mander, '' Schilder-boeck'', 1604 There are no written sources, which confirm these apprenticeships. Jacob Grimmer - Landscape with figures

The only documentary evidence relating to Grimmer's training is his registration in 1539 under the name Iaques Grimmaer in the liggeren of the Antwerp

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...

as a student of Gabriel Bouwens. It is therefore not certain that Grimmer in fact was a pupil of Matthys Cock and Christian van den Queborn. Grimmer became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1547. Grimmer married Lucia van de Wouwer in April 1548. Of the four children born out of this marriage Abel became an important landscape and architectural painter. There is some disagreement among art historians as to whether or not Grimmer traveled to Italy as many of his artist contemporaries did.

Peter C. Sutton Peter Campbell Sutton (born March 30, 1949 in Boston) is an American art historian. A specialist on seventeenth-century Dutch art, Sutton served as the Susan E. Lynch Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bruce Museum of Arts and ...

'Jacob Grimmer biography'
at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum He bought a house in the centre of Antwerp where he set up his studio. He was known for painting after nature in the areas around Antwerp. As early as 1550 Jacob Grimmer was praised by the famous Italian art historian

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

as one of the best landscape painters of his time.Hans Devisscher. "Jacob Grimmer." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 12 February 2016 Karel van Mander described Grimmer as 'such an outstanding landscape painter that in some respects I do not know a better one, so lively and lovely were his skies'.Larry Silver, Peasant Scenes and Landscapes: The Rise of Pictorial Genres in the Antwerp Art Market
University of Pennsylvania Press, 31 Jan 2012, p. 188-189 Grimmer's art was appreciated not only by his contemporaries but also by artists of the next century. Both

Pieter Lastman Pieter Lastman (1583–1633) was a Dutch language, Dutch painter. Lastman is considered important because of his work as a painter of history pieces and because his pupils included Rembrandt and Jan Lievens. In his paintings Lastman paid carefu ...

and his famous pupil, Rembrandt, owned landscapes by Grimmer. Rembrandt's inventory of 1656 included a winter landscape by Jacob Grimmer.Peter C. Sutton, 'Jacob Grimmer, A Winter Landscape with a Village, Skaters on a Frozen River, and Hunters in the Foreground
at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Jacob Grimmer - Winterlandschap met schaatsers op een bevroren rivier en jagers op de voorgrond

Jacob Grimmer - Winterlandschap met schaatsers op een bevroren rivier en jagers op de voorgrond

Jacob Grimmer was an active member of the local chamber of rhetoric

Violieren The Violieren (wallflower or gillyflower) was a chamber of rhetoric that dates back to the 15th century in Antwerp, when it was a social drama society with close links to the Guild of Saint Luke.A. A. Keersmaekers, ''Geschiedenis van de Antwerpse R ...

where he was celebrated as a poet and author of comic writings.Jacob Grimmer (Antwerp 1525/6-before 1590), ''Summer
' at Christie's He died before May 1590 in Antwerp.

Work

General

Jacob Grimmer was principally a painter of landscapes and winter scenes although he also painted some religiously themed works such as the Tower of Babel and genre works. He often returned to the subject of the ''Four Seasons'' and the ''Twelve Months''. His earliest dated work was dated to 1546 and his latest dated work to 1589.Jacob Grimmer
at The Netherlands Institute for Art History He was known for working directly from nature as was reported by Karel van Mander. His output was large as he relied on a large workshop, which produced small-scale panels in a standardized production process. His son Abel further streamlined this mass production process.

Significance of his work

Jacob has often been regarded as an imitator of

Pieter Brueghel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genre ...

who recreated Brueghel's artistic innovations on small panels and supplied these to the market at low prices. Grimmer's landscapes did at the same time constitute a further development in the landscape genre. Grimmer broke away from the earlier Flemish tradition of the so-called '

' initiated by

Joachim Patinir Joachim Patinir, also called Patenier (c. 1480 – 5 October 1524), was a Flemish Renaissance painter of history and landscape subjects. He was Flemish, from the area of modern Wallonia, but worked in Antwerp, then the centre of the art market ...

. The term world landscape is used in art historical literature for a landscape composition, which shows an imaginary panoramic landscape with mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings from an elevated viewpoint and usually includes a small-scale Biblical or historical narrative but the figures comprising this narrative element are dwarfed by their surroundings. Jacob Grimmer - Entrance to a village with peasants carousing

Jacob Grimmer - Entrance to a village with peasants carousing

In his earliest landscape drawing of a '' View over a tree-covered hill towards a village on a river'' (1573, Kunsthalle Hamburg) and in the series of paintings of the ''Four Seasons'' (1577,

Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest) The Museum of Fine Arts ( hu, Szépművészeti Múzeum �seːpmyveːsɛti ˈmuːzɛum is a museum in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary, facing the Palace of Art. It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog in an eclecti ...

Jacob Grimmer showed a preference for depicting realistic flat Flemish landscapes with villages and farmhouses and populated with rural residents. The small figures in these scenes are set in graduated zones of recession along rolling hills towards a horizon in the middle of the panel. These landscapes with figures and small anecdotal scenes are rendered in a naturalist manner. Grimmer abandoned the contrived world landscape of the earlier generation in favour of a simplicity and authenticity never seen before. His landscapes develop the scenery continuously from the foreground to the horizon. His compositions are broken up in large zones of uniform colour that contrast with each other. He chose more realistic colours than those used in the world landscapes of his predecessors. He used well-constructed, atmospheric values in order to arrive at a unity of composition. He had his own style of representing trees, which rise thinly against the background with spare crowns of foliage and each leaf drawn individually. Jacob Grimmer - View over a tree-covered hill towards a village on a river

Jacob Grimmer - View over a tree-covered hill towards a village on a river

Grimmer's work stands out in its ability to provide a simple and sincere view of everyday life. In this attention for rural life Grimmer's work shows a parallel with the landscapes ascribed to the

Master of the Small Landscapes The Master of the Small Landscapes (in Dutch: Meester van de Kleine Landschappen) was a Flemish artist from the mid-16th century known for his landscape drawings. The name of this unidentified artist is derived from a series of 44 prints of lan ...

which were first published around 1560 and signaled a move away from the world landscape with its religious scenes towards an engagement with the real life in the countryside. Unlike Pieter Brueghel the Elder who had a grim view of peasants, Grimmer held a much sunnier view of peasant life than did his fellow painter. Grimmer often accentuated the lighter, humoristic side of rural life as seen in his '' A Winter Landscape with a Village, Skaters on a Frozen River, and Hunters in the Foreground'' ( Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum), which shows a skater on the ice who falls over and reveals her bare buttocks. Although his stylistic development is still little understood, in his late works anecdotal details decreased markedly and were replaced by intimate views of the landscape. These late works anticipate the type of forest landscape made popular by artists of the next generation, such as

David Vinckboons David Vinckboons (baptized 13 August 1576 – c.1632 ) was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Mechelen, Southern Netherlands. Vinckboons, whose name is often spelled as Vingboons, Vinghboons, Vinckebonis or Vinckboom, had at least ten chil ...

and the artists of the Frankenthal school. Jacob Grimmer - View of Kiel - WGA10694

Jacob’s extant pictures show explicit connection to the region around Antwerp. Some of his views of Antwerp adhere to the "town-and-country" format, a kind of combination of a rural view with a city view. An example is his panoramic '' View of the Kiel'' (1578, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) where the city appears only on the far-right distance. Another example is the '' View of the Scheldt near Antwerp'' (1587, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp), which depicts a somewhat different aspect of country pastimes. Only in the distant horizon are the towers of Antwerp visible. Grimmer's work was influential on the next generation of Flemish landscape painters including his son Abel as well as Gillis van Coninxloo, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan Wildens.

Collaborations

As was common practice in the Antwerp art sector, Jacob Grimmer often collaborated with other specialist artists. Collaborations with

Marten van Cleve Marten van Cleve the Elder (Antwerp, c. 1527 – Antwerp, before 24 November 1581) was a Flemish painter and draftsman active in Antwerp between 1551 and 1581.Carl Van de Velde. "Marten van Cleve I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxfo ...

and

Gillis Mostaert Gillis Mostaert the Elder (27 or 28 November 1528 – 28 December 1598) was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century.

who painted the staffage in his landscapes are recorded. Collaborations with Mostaert appear to have been particularly frequent. An example is a pair of landscapes representing 'Spring' and 'Winter', which may have been part of a cycle on the seasons (Auctioned at Sotheby's, London on 3 December 2008, lot 7). In this pair of paintings the artists depict everyday life by filling every corner with some anecdotal detail. They and their workshops repeated these compositions on several further occasions and numerous smaller repetitions, of varying degrees of quality, are known.

Prints

Some of Grimmer’s landscape designs were turned into prints. A set of 12 ''Landscape Views in the Environs of Antwerp'' were engraved by

Adriaen Collaert Adriaen Collaert (c. 1560 – 29 June 1618) was a Flemish designer and engraver. Biography The estimated year of his birth at Antwerp is between 1555 and 1565.

. The set was published probably in Antwerp in the 1580s. The prints resemble his painted series of the Months and Seasons. He seems to take some liberty with the actual scenery and makes the landscape much more dramatic and hilly than was actually the case in the environs of Antwerp. Another series of 24 views of sites around Brussels engraved by Hans Collaer and first issued in Antwerp in the 1580s is likely also based on drawings by Grimmer. These prints show a more topographical interest, and unlike the Antwerp series, clearly identify the location depicted on both the prints and the five surviving drawings.Gibson (2000), p. 23-25 Jacob Grimmer also designed a set of four roundels of ''Landscapes with Cephalus and Procris''. They were engraved and published by

Philip Galle Philip (or Philips) Galle (1537 – March 1612) was a Dutch publisher, best known for publishing old master prints, which he also produced as designer and engraver. He is especially known for his reproductive engravings of paintings. Life Galle ...

. The first two of the prints were based on the landscape backgrounds in two drawings with ''Hagar, Ishmael and the Angel'' (1586,

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

, Oxford). Both the mythological subjects as well as the scenery with its rolling hills and punctuated by a few tall trees, reveal their debt to

Hieronymus Cock Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.

's 1558 landscape print cycle of 'Landscapes with Biblical and Mythological Scenes' after designs by his brother

Matthys Cock Matthys Cock or Matthijs Wellens de Cock (c. 1505 – 1548) was a Flemish landscape painter and draughtsman. He is known for his landscapes, marine art and architectural drawings.1526 births 1590 deaths Flemish Renaissance painters Flemish landscape painters Flemish genre painters Painters from Antwerp