Jan Brueghel the younger

Variant namesauktoriserad namnform: Jan Brueghel the younger alternativt namn: Jan Brueghel II

DatesBiographical dates: 1678 Dead: dead 1678-09-01 Born: born before 1601-09-13

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BiographyBiography: Landscape- , history- and still life painter. The eldest son of the painter Jan Brueghel I, Jan II was taught by his father. In 1622 he travelled to Italy, where he met his father’s patron, Cardinal Federico Borromeo. Following his father’s unexpected death in 1625, he returned to Antwerp and, becoming a member of the local Guild of St. Luke in that year, took over his father’s flourishing workshop while still quite young. He spent the rest of his life in Antwerp, except for several brief business visits to Paris in the 1650s. Jan II played a central role in artistic life at Antwerp and collaborated with other artists, including his father’s former friends and collaborators, Peter Paul Rubens and Hendrick van Balen I, who were recruited to add figures and other staffage to his landscapes and flower garlands. Jan II followed steadfastly in his father’s footsteps to a significant degree, adopting the latter’s style in his landscapes with figures, his allegorical scenes, his flower still lifes and garlands. This has been the cause of considerable and lasting confusion – also with regard to his main subjects, landscapes, his allegorical scenes, etc. From the documents published by Denucé (1934) we learn that Jan II was a meticulous and slow worker (it took him a whole day to paint two tulips). He probably painted a good many works while still working under his father, who retouched them, but after his return from Italy his production was small at first and there were few still lifes. Only later, when prices for Brueghel paintings had come down, did large numbers of flower pieces – vases as well as garlands – emerge from his workshop. In early 1646, the last year recorded in the surviving documents, they were sold at the rate of about seven a month. It is likely that the whole family was actively involved at this stage, including his wife Anna Janssens, his sons Jan Peeter and Abraham and his young nephew Jan van Kessel I.

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