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Discovering
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Who was Jan Lievens? |
Lievens was known as a child protégé, when barely in his teens he began to work independently rather than in the studio of an established artist. Pieter Lastman was his first teacher; he also taught Lievens' friend Rembrandt van Rijn.
Title: The Feast of Esther, c. 1625
Artist: Jan Lievens (Dutch 1607 - 1674)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
Purchased with Funds from the State of North Carolina
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The two Dutch masters were barely a year apart in age and both were born in Leiden. At one point, in 1626, they shared a studio. Their close association has led to some confusion in correctly attributing unsigned works between them and their similar styles.
Title: Prince Charles Louis with His Tutor, as the Young Alexander Instructed by Aristotle, 1631
Artist: Jan Lievens (Dutch 1607 - 1674)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
It has long been believed that Lievens was Rembrandt's student. That isn't true. One of the themes of the NGA's exhibition is to propose that it was Rembrandt who learned from Lievens not the other way around specifically to the style Lievens developed in the latter part of the 1620s.
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One visitor to their shared studio was the diplomat and poet Constantijn Huygens who was impressed by each artist. Huygens would write Rembrandt was superior in the vividness of his expression but Lievens was superior in "a certain grandeur of inventions and boldness of subjects and forms." |
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In 1631 Lievens moved to England and Rembrandt to Amsterdam. It was during his time in London that Lievens fell under the influence of Anthony van Dyck; royal court painter.
Title: Landscape with Willows, early 1640s
Artist: Jan Lievens (Dutch 1607 - 1674)
Medium: Oil on Panel
Permanent Collection: Frits Lugt Collection, Institut Néerlandais, Paris
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Lievens went on to live and work in Antwerp, Berlin and the Hague before settling in Amsterdam. Whether he resumed his friendship with Rembrandt after his return to the Netherlands is unknown.
Jan Lievens, a Baroque artist of the Dutch Golden Age, work stands the test of time. That he is not as well known as his friend and fellow artist Rembrandt may well be altered with his re-discovery at the hands of the NGA.
Title: Trumpeter on Horseback, c. 1625-1628
Artist: Jan Lievens (Dutch 1607 - 1674)
Medium: Pen and Brown Ink with Gray Wash, over Black Chalk on Paper
Dimensions: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Permanent Collection:
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Powell added, "this intriguing exhibition invites a serious reconsideration of his place in the annals of art history. We hope that general visitors and scholars alike will find this show to be an eye-opener."
Jan Lievens
A Dutch Master Rediscovered
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC:
October 26, 2008 - January 11, 2009
Milwaukee Art Museum:
February 7, 2009 - April 26, 2009
Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam:
May 17 - August 9, 2009
