Thomas Wijck

Thomas Wijck (also Thomas Wijk, or Thomas Wyck) (b. 1616 Beverwijk, d. 1677, Haarlem) was a Dutch painter, a member of Dutch family of painters and draughtsmen.

Biography

Wijck was a pupil of his father. He journeyed to Italy, presumably by 1640, the year in which a ‘Tommaso fiammingo, pittore’ (Thomas the Fleming, painter) is documented as residing in Rome in the Via della Fontanella. He also resided in the environs of Naples, where he executed many sketches which he subsequently worked up into drawings of coast views^[1]. In 1642 Wijck was once again in the northern Netherlands, where he became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke.^[2] He excelled in painting shipping and seaports, with small figures, very frequently odd characters such as alchemists and misers, in a style resembling that of Pieter van Laar. He also painted fairs, public markets, and the interiors of chemists’ laboratories. In 1660 he was appointed Dean of the Guild at Haarlem. He came to England about the time of the Restoration, and was much employed. He was followed there by his son and pupil Jan Wyck, who remained in Britain for the rest of his career and played an important role in the development of English sporting painting.

Thomas Wijck's painting of an alchemist is said to have influenced Joseph Wright of Derby's similar picture. Both pictures contain similar vaulting, a confusion of objects and an assistant who is singled out by the light.^[3]

Thomas Wijck painted a View of London before the fire, and another of the north bank of the Thames, from Southwark, exhibiting the mansions of the nobility in the Strand. He also painted the “Fire of London” more than once. He died at Haarlem in August, 1677. He was followed by Pieter Mulier II.

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