Jacob van Oost or Jacob van Oost the Elder (1603–1671) was a Flemish painter of
history paintings and
portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
s. He was the most important painter of
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
The area of the whole city a ...
in the 17th century through his portraits of members of the local bourgeois and his many altarpieces made in the spirit of the
Counter-Reformation. He also created
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
paintings of musicians and card players for the open market.
[Matthias Depoorter, ''Jacob van Oost I'']
at Baroque in the Southern Netherlands
Life
Jacob van Oost was born in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
The area of the whole city a ...
as the son of Johannes van Oost en Gheeraerdyne Weyts. His family was well-off.
It is not clear who was his master but he was probably a pupil of his brother Frans van Oost.
[Hans Vlieghe. "Oost, Jacob van, I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 16 Jul. 2014]
Jacob van Oost became master of the Bruges
Guild of St. Luke in 1621. He left that year for Italy. The work he made during his Italian residence has not been identified.
[ During the five years he spent in Rome he may have studied under Annibale Carracci.][Jacob Van Oost - A Baroque painter in Bruges]
at Codart After his return to Bruges in 1628 he became a 'stedehouder' (director) of the local Guild of St. Luke on 13 October 1629. He married Jaquemyne Van Overdille in Bruges in 1630. His wife died the next year leaving him one son Maarten. In 1633 Jacob van Oost married Maria van Tollenaere. The couple had six children. His sons Jacob the Younger and Willem became notable painters in their own right. His grandson Dominique Joseph van Oost was a portrait and history painter active in Lille.[
Jacob van Oost was commissioned to restore Jan van Eyck's famous ]Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele
''The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele'' is a large oil-on-oak panel painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within an apparition of sa ...
(1436) in the former Church of Saint-Donaas (now in the Groeningemuseum
The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum in Bruges, Belgium, built on the site of the medieval Eekhout Abbey.
It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian painting covering six centuries, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museum ...
) in Bruges in 1632–33.[Jacob I Van Oost (1603-1671): Case study: Portraits of Everard Tristram and his wife Wilhelmine Bezoete (1646)]
at Codart Between 1633 and 1662 Jacob van Oost held various positions in the Guild of St. Luke including various term as the dean of the Guild.[Jacob van Oost (I)]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
From 1651 until his death he was the official city painter of Bruges.[
His registered pupils were his sons Jacob the Younger and Willem, and the painters Boudewijn Bodet, Franschoes Gheilliaert, Jan Maes, ]Jan Baptist van Meunincxhove
Jan Baptist van Meunincxhove (c. 1620/25 – 1703/04) was a Flemish painter of cityscapes, architectural paintings, marine views and group portraits who was active in Bruges. Without being original, he maintained a high standard of painting at ...
, Jan Ramon and Arnoldus de Roose.[
Van Oost died in Bruges.][
]
Work
Jacob van Oost was a prolific painter who made portraits for the local bourgeois and history paintings. He is primarily known for the altarpieces in the spirit of the Counter Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
and his portraits.[ A small number of paintings, mostly with secular, genre-style themes such as interiors with figures (musical companies, card players, fortune tellers etc.), was likely aimed at private individuals and possibly for the open market.][ He also made copies after van Dyck and Rubens.][ Van Oost was the leading 17th-century painter from Bruges.][
His work was strongly influenced by early Baroque painters such as Caravaggio and his follower ]Bartolomeo Manfredi
Bartolomeo Manfredi (baptised 25 August 1582 – 12 December 1622) was an Italian painter, a leading member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) of the early 17th century.
Life
Manfredi was born in Ostiano, nea ...
whose work he had studied during his stay in Italy. The influence of Caravaggio can be seen in the chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
effects as well as the non-idealised figures. An example of this is the 1630 ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' (Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...
).[ His genre scenes in the 1630s showed the influence of Bartolomeo Manfredi. An example is the '' Card Players'' (1634, private collection).][
After this early Caravaggesque influence, his work developed towards more monumental figures and a more classicist treatment that reflected the work of Annibale Carracci and his follower ]Domenichino
Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.
Life
Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a sho ...
.[ From the 1650s, his work started to display greater emotionality, the use of dramatic spatial effects and a palette closer to Venetian art. Van Oost's paintings of that period show the influence of ]Federico Barocci
Federico Barocci (also written ''Barozzi'')(c. 1535 in Urbino – 1612 in Urbino) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly esteemed and inf ...
, Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...
and Anthony van Dyck.[ A few times he even simply copied van Dyck's compositions. While this stylistic development was quite common among contemporary Flemish artists, the clear structure and strong modelling of van Oost's work make his manner distinctive.][
While his portraits are generally rather formulaic the '' Portrait of a Bruges Family'' (1645, ]Groeningemuseum
The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum in Bruges, Belgium, built on the site of the medieval Eekhout Abbey.
It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian painting covering six centuries, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museum ...
, Bruges) reveals a careful composition. Through its emblematic and monumental character it can be regarded ais a masterpiece of high Baroque painting.[
Many of his religious works can still be seen in the churches of Bruges.][ The St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges holds 13 paintings by Jacob Van Oost, which can be viewed ''in situ'' throughout the church.][ His paintings can also be seen in museums throughout the world including the ]Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie (, ''Painting Gallery'') is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in ...
, the Groeningemuseum
The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum in Bruges, Belgium, built on the site of the medieval Eekhout Abbey.
It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian painting covering six centuries, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museum ...
in Bruges, 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 ...
in London, 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 ...
in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
References
Further reading
* Jean Luc Meulemeester, ''Jacob van Oost de Oudere en het zeventiende-eeuwse Brugge'', Westvlaamse Gidsenkring, 1984
* Eva Tahon, Benoit Kervyn, ''Jacob Van Oost the Elder, 1603-1671: A Baroque Painter in Bruges'', Groeningemuseum, 2003
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oost, Jacob van
1603 births
1671 deaths
Flemish Baroque painters
Flemish history painters
Flemish portrait painters
Painters from Bruges