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JAN JOSEPHSZOON VAN GOYEN (1596-1656)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 304 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JAN JOSEPHSZOON See also:VAN See also:GOYEN (1596-1656)  , Dutch painter, was See also:born at See also:Leiden on the 13th of See also:January 1596, learned See also:painting under several masters at Leiden and See also:Haarlem, married in 1618 and settled at the See also:Hague about 1631 . He was one of the first to emancipate himself from the traditions of See also:minute See also:imitation embodied in the See also:works of See also:Breughel and Savery . Though he preserved the dun See also:scale of See also:tone See also:peculiar to those painters, he studied atmospheric effects in See also:black and See also:white with considerable skill . He had much See also:influence on Dutch See also:art . He formed See also:Solomon See also:Ruysdael and Pieter See also:Potter, forced See also:attention from See also:Rembrandt, and bequeathed some of his precepts to Pieter de Molyn, Coelenbier, Saftleven, See also:van der Kabel and even Berghem . His See also:life at the Hague for twenty-five years was very prosperous, and he See also:rose in 164o to be See also:president of his gild . A friend of van Dyck and See also:Bartholomew van der See also:Helst, he sat to both these artists for his likehess . His daughter See also:Margaret married See also:Jan See also:Steen, and he had steady patrons in the See also:stadtholder See also:Frederick See also:Henry, and the chiefs of the See also:municipality of the Hague . He died at the Hague in 1656, possessed of See also:land and houses to the amount of 15,000 florins . Between 1610 and 1616 van See also:Goyen wandered from one school' to the other . He was first apprenticed to Isaak Swanenburgh; he then passed through the workshops of de See also:Man, Klok and de See also:Hoorn . In 1616 he took a decisive step and joined Esaias van der Velde at Haarlem; amongst his earlier pictures, some of 1621 (See also:Berlin Museum) and 1623 (See also:Brunswick See also:Gallery) show the influence of Esaias very perceptibly .

The landscape is minute .. Details of branching and foliage are given, and thefigures are important in relation to the distances . After 1625 these peculiarities gradually disappear . Atmospheric effect in landscapes of cool tints varying from See also:

grey See also:green to See also:pearl or See also:brown and yellow dun is the See also:principal See also:object which van Goyen holds in view, and he succeeds admirably in See also:light skies with drifting misty See also:cloud, and See also:downs with cottages and scanty shrubbery or stunted trees . Neglecting all detail of foliage he now works in a thin diluted See also:medium, laying on rubbings as of See also:sepia or See also:Indian See also:ink, and See also:finishing without loss of transparence or lucidity . Throwing his foreground into darkness, he casts alternate light and shade upon the more distant planes, and realizes most pleasing views of large expanse . In buildings and See also:water, with See also:shipping near the See also:banks, he sometimes has the strength if not the See also:colour of See also:Albert See also:Cuyp . The defect of his See also:work is chiefly want of solidity . But even this had its See also:charm for van Goyen's contemporaries, and some See also:time elapsed before Cuyp, who imitated him, restricted his method of transparent tinting to the foliage of foreground trees . Van Goyen's pictures are comparatively rare in See also:English collections, but his work is seen to See also:advantage abroad, and chiefly at the Louvre, and in Berlin, See also:Gotha, See also:Vienna, See also:Munich and See also:Augsburg . Twenty-eight of his works were exhibited together at Vienna in 1873 . Though he visited See also:France once or twice, van Goyen chiefly confined himself to the scenery of See also:Holland and the See also:Rhine .

Nine times from 1633 to 1655 he painted views of See also:

Dordrecht . Nimeguen was one of his favourite resorts . But he was also fond of Haarlem and See also:Amsterdam, and he did not neglect Arnheim or See also:Utrecht . One of his largest pieces is a view of the Hague, executed in 1651 for the municipality, and now in the See also:town collection of that See also:city . Most of his panels represent reaches of the Rhine, the Waal and the Maese . But he sometimes sketched the downs of See also:Scheveningen, or the See also:sea at the mouth of the Rhine and See also:Scheldt; and he liked to depict the See also:calm inshore, and rarely ventured upon seas stirred by more than a See also:curling See also:breeze or the swell of a coming See also:squall . He often painted See also:winter scenes, with See also:ice and skaters and sledges, in the See also:style See also:familiar to See also:Isaac van See also:Ostade . There are numerous varieties of these subjects in the See also:master's works from 1621 to 1653 . One See also:historical picture has been assigned to van Goyen—the " Embarkation of See also:Charles II." in the See also:Bute collection . But this See also:canvas was executed after van Goyen's See also:death . When he tried this See also:form of art he properly mistrusted his own See also:powers . But he produced little in See also:partnership with his contemporaries, and we can only except the " Watering-See also:place " in the gallery of Vienna, where the landscape is enlivened with horses and See also:cattle by See also:Philip Wouvermans .

Even Jan Steen, who was his son-in-See also:

law, only painted figures for one of his pictures, and it is probable that this piece was completed after van Goyen's death . More than 250 of van Goyen's pictures are known and accessible . Of this number little more than 70 are undated . None exist without the full name or See also:monogram, and yet there is no painter whose See also:hand it• is easier to trace without the help of these adjuncts . An etcher, but a poor one, van Goyen has only bequeathed to us two very rare plates .

End of Article: JAN JOSEPHSZOON VAN GOYEN (1596-1656)
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