Jacobus Coelemans or Jacob Coelemans, known in France as Jacques Coelemans (

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,

, 23 August 1654 –

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

, 11 February 1732) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

engraver and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

, known for his reproductive prints after famous painters and portraits. He trained in his native Antwerp and later moved to Aix-en-Provence in France where he worked for the remainder of his life.Jacobus Coelemans
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History

Life

Jacob Coelemans was registered as a pupil of

Frederik Bouttats the Younger Frederik Bouttats, an engraver, was born at Antwerp about the year 1620. He engraved several plates after his own designs, principally portraits, and some after other masters. They are worked with the graver, in a neat style, and are not without m ...

at 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 ...

in the Guild year 1672-1673.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, ''De Liggeren en andere Historische Archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onder Zinkspreuk: "Wy Jonsten Versaemt" afgeschreven en bemerkt door Ph. Rombouts en Th. Van Lerius, Advokaet, onder de bescherming van den raed van bestuer der koninklyke Akademie van beeldende Kunsten, van gezegde Stad''
Volume 2, Antwerp, 1872, pp. 420, 424 Bouttats was a print artist, art dealer (person), painter and mezzotint artist from an extensive Antwerp dynasty of artists.Frederik Bouttats (II)
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History He was never registered as a master in the

of Antwerp. On 20 October 1680 he joined the 'Sodaliteit van de Bejaerde Jongmans', a fraternity for bachelors established by the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

order. He must have enjoyed a certain reputation as he moved in 1690 to Aix-en-Provence in France to which he was called by Jean-Baptiste Boyer d’Éguilles. His patron was Attorney General of the Parliament of Provence and a famous art collector and scholar. Boyer d'Aguilles commissioned him to engrave his entire art collection. He was thereby completing the work which was commenced by the French engraver

Sébastien Barras Sébastien Barras (1653–1703) was a French painter and engraver. Life Barras was born at Aix-en-Provence, in 1653. He was a pupil of Boyer d'Aguilles, and studied for some time in Rome. The first edition of the Boyer d'Aguilles Collection, p ...

and Boyer d'Aguilles himself, who was also an amateur engraver.Edm. no Busscher, ''Jacques Coelemans'', '' Biographie Nationale de Belgique'', vol. 4] (Brussels, 1873), 261–263 He died in Aix-en-Provence on 11 February 1732.

Work

Coelemans worked as an engraver and etcher who mainly produced reproductive prints after paintings made by other artists. The commission by Boyer d'Aguilles required him to reproduce paintings in all genres. He was a versatile printmaker who was able to complete the commission successfully. The plates that he executed for Boyer d'Aguilles were published after his patron's death by Coelemans, in a folio volume containing 118 plates, under the title . Pierre-Jean Mariette published a second edition in 1744, adding a note on the former owner of the gallery and an explanation of the paintings reproduced. A third edition was printed by Brother Basan, but the plates were too worn to provide good proofs. Most of the engravings by Sébastien Barras and those of Boyer d'Aguilles are missing from these two editions. He executed his engravings in a vigorous style, with sometimes too much black. Almost all of his prints show a judicious sense of line and a good understanding of

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 ...

. He was scrupulous in his attempt to accurately reproduce the work of the Flemish, French or Italian masters in the Boyer d'Aguilles' collection. He is generally recognized for the brilliance of his palette.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coelemans, Jacobus Flemish engravers Artists from Antwerp 1654 births 1732 deaths