Jan Verkolje or Johannes Verkolje (9 February 1650 (baptized) – 8 May 1693 (buried)) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and engraver. He is mainly known for his portraits and genre pieces of elegant couples in interiors and, to a lesser extent, for his religious and mythological compositions. He was a gifted

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...

artist.Jan Verkolje (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 ...

Trained in Amsterdam, Verkolje spent his active professional career in Delft where he had access to powerful patrons.Walter Liedtke, Michiel C. Plomp and Axel Ruger, ''Vermeer and The Delft School''
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 29

Life

Verkolje was born in Amsterdam, the son of Benjamin Jacobsz, a locksmith, and Maria Tonnes. He was baptized in the

Nieuwezijds Kapel Nieuwezijds Kapel (Dutch - New Side's Chapel), or Heilige Stede (Dutch - holy site) or Chapel of the Heilige Stede refers to a site in Amsterdam that includes shops and a Dutch Reformed church built in 1908 on the site of a church once called the ...

in Amsterdam on 9 February 1659. The early artist biographer

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

recounts that Verkolje was a child prodigy, who became a self-taught artist after hurting himself while playing with darts as a child. As the injury on his heel or ankle did not heal well he was bedridden for years. To while away the time, he started to copy prints. The artist

Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst (also ''Bronchorst'' or ''Bronkhorst''; 1603–1661) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver. He is considered today to be a minor member of the Utrecht Caravaggisti. Biography According to Arnold Houbraken, van ...

gave him high-quality prints to copy. Thus started his artistic career according to Houbraken. Subsequently Jan studied for about half a year with Jan Andrea Lievens (1644–1680), the son of the prominent painter

Jan Lievens Jan Lievens (24 October 1607 – 4 June 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was associated with his close contemporary Rembrandt, a year older, in the early parts of their careers. They shared a birthplace in Leiden, training with Pieter L ...

.Johannes Verkolje biography
in:

, ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'', 1718, pp. 282–286 Jan Verkolje I - Portrait of a lady and child holding a spaniel

Jan Verkolje I - Portrait of a lady and child holding a spaniel

In 1672, the so-called

rampjaar In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the nl, Rampjaar, label=none (Disaster Year). In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster an ...

(disaster year), which was marked by a large-scale invasion of the Dutch Republic by French and other armies, Verkolje moved from Amsterdam to Delft. Here he married Judith Voorheul in October 1672. He became a member of the

Guild of St. 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 Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...

of Delft in 1673 and served as its dean between 1678 and 1688. Verkolje was very successful and enjoyed the patronage of important patrons in Delft as well as the court in the Hague. As a portrait painter his only competitor in Delft was

Cornelis de Man Cornelis de Man (1 July 1621, in Delft – 1 September 1706, in Delft) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography As a young man, Kornelis was not satisfied with life in Delft. He wanted to travel beyond the port of Dordrecht and that is what h ...

. His sons Nikolaas Verkolje (Delft, 1673 – Amsterdam, 1746) and Jan II (Delft, 1683 – Amsterdam, 1755) were trained by Verkolje as painters. Nikolaas had a successful career. Verkolje's other pupils included Albertus van der Burch, Joan van der Spriet,

Willem Verschuring Willem Verschuring (September 25, 1660, Gorinchem – March 11, 1726, Gorinchem), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography He learned to paint from his father, Hendrik Verschuring, and later became a pupil of Jan Verkolje in Delft.