Jacob Gillig (also spelled Jakob or Gellig; ca.1636–1701)[1] was a Dutch Golden Age painter of still lifes, usually of fish. Although he produced several portraits, it is for painting fish that he is best known.[2]
Gillig was born and died in Utrecht. He apparently did not begin painting until his twenties, never registered as a master with the Utrecht Guild of Painters, and worked a merchant and then as a prison warden.[2] He married a daughter of Abraham Willaerts in 1661. According to Houbraken, he tried his hand at portrait painting, but his likenesses were not very like his subjects.[3]
His works, as in the example to the right, favored pyramidal compositions.[2] These were much respected in Utrecht at the time, and several of his works were copied by Abraham Mignon.[2]