Jan Wildens

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Jan Wildens (1586 in Antwerp – 16 October 1653 in Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman specializing in landscapes.

Jan Wildens, Winter Landscape with Hunter, 1624. Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.

Wildens was born in Antwerp and at the age of ten was apprenticed to Pieter Verhulst (d. 1628) and entered Antwerp's guild of St. Luke in 1604 as a master. He departed for Italy in 1613 and the following year published a series of twelve engravings based on the seasons of the year. Upon returning to Antwerp after a stay of three years, he became a frequent collaborator with Peter Paul Rubens until 1620.^[1] Wildens was responsible for the landscape backgrounds for various scenes in the designs for the Decius Mus tapestry series and for history paintings by Rubens that include "The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus" (c. 1618; Munich, Alte Pinotek.),^[2] "Samson and the Lion" (c. 1618; Private Collection), "Cimon and Iphigenia" (c. 1617–18; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum)^[3] and "Diana and her Nymphs Departing for the Chase" (c. 1616; Cleveland Museum of Art). Later in his career he was to paint landscapes for many other Antwerp painters such as Jacob Jordaens, Frans Snyders, Paul de Vos, Abraham Janssens, Jan Boeckhorst, Gerard Seghers, Theodoor Rombouts and Cornelis Schut.

In 1619 Rubens acted as a witness to Wildens’s marriage to Maria Stappaert. She died in 1624 after bearing him two sons, both of whom became painters: Jan Baptist (1620–37) and Jeremias (1621–53). His works from these years employ decorative forms, loose compositions and a broad technique reminiscent of Rubens, though earlier influences on him such as Jan Brueghel the Younger and Paul Bril still continue to play a significant role. Wildens preference is for a calm and gentle approach expressed in marked symmetry of composition and soft, subtle colours. The contrast is evident in Wildens’s serene "Landscape with a Shepherd" (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten), which was partly inspired by Rubens’s more dynamic "Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock" (London, National Gallery). The two painters remained friends and at Rubens’s death in 1640, Wildens was one of the executors of his will.

Sources

↑ Joannes Wildens biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
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Hans Devisscher, "Wildens, Jan", Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, [9 November 2007].
Hans Vlieghe (1998). Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07038-1

External links

Gallery of works by Jan Wildens

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jan Wildens.

Authority control	VIAF: 805376 ISNI: 0000 0001 1827 2264 GND: 118632787 ULAN: 500001027

Persondata
Name	Wildens, Jan
Alternative names
Short description	painter
Date of birth	1586
Place of birth	Antwerp
Date of death	16 October 1653
Place of death

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