Jan Van Huysum Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Unlike most Dutch still-life painters, Jan van Huysum demanded working from life and close investigation of the subject matter to be painted. He once kept in touch with a benefactor to clarify that her oil painting would be delayed a year since, he couldn't locate a genuine yellow rose, so he couldn't complete the composition.

Jan van Huysum gained an international reputation as a leading painter of realistic still lifes. The habit of adding flowers from different seasons to a bouquet points out that he does not copy what he saw before him, his paintings were built up from careful studies. He intended to instruct as well as delight with his paintings. His father, Justus the Elder, was a flower still life and landscape oil painter who taught Jan at an early age, and he had three artist brothers: Justus the Younger, Michiel, and Jacob, who worked in England and imitated Jan's style.

Jan van Huysum led a very secluded life and he feared everyone plagiarism him including his brothers, so he denied access to his studio. Margaret Haverman was his only pupil, but her work seems to have made him so jealous that she had to leave the studio.

No museum has finer and more numerous oil paintings of Jan van Huysum than The Louvre in Paris, which boasts four landscapes and six still life oil paintings. Jan van Huysum, though a genius still life painter, he also believed himself to be a genius landscape painter.

Art Movement: Rococo.
Artists Influencing Jan van Huysum: Justus van Huysum.
Painters Jan van Huysum Influenced: Margaretha Haverman, Justus the Younger, Michiel and Jacob van Huysum, Johannes de Bosch, Johannes Roedig, Jan van Os.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.