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 Lastman in Amsterdam, where they shared a studio for about five years until 1631. Like Rembrandt he painted both portraits and history paintings, but unlike him Lievens' career took him away from Amsterdam to London, Antwerp, The Hague and Berlin.

Biography

According to Arnold Houbraken, Jan was the son of Lieven Hendriksze, an embroiderer (borduurwerker), and was trained by Joris Verschoten. He was sent to Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam at about the age of 10 for two full years. After that he began his career as an independent artist, at about the age of 12 in Leiden.¹ He became something of a celebrity because of his talent at such a young age. Specifically, his copy of Democriet & Herakliet by Cornelis van Haarlem (illustration), and a portrait of his mother Machtelt Jans van Noortzant, were admired. This attracted the attention of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, around 1620, who bought a life-size painting of a young man reading by the light of a turf-fire. He gave this painting in turn to the English Ambassador, who presented it to James I. This was the reason why in 1631, when Lievens was 24, he was invited to the British court.¹ Houbraken appears to have taken this account directly from Jan Orlers' Beschrijvinge der Stad Leyden (1641) which gives a life of Jan Lievens in pages 375-7 including these details.² However a painting by Lievens in the Getty Museum of which must have been painted in Leiden is clearly signed and dated 1631, so the exact timing of his trip to England is open to doubt.