JACQUES D’ARTHOIS
(1613–1686)
Portrait of Jacques d'Arthois, anonymous, panel, 51 x 42 cm, Liège, Grand Curtius
Painter, draftsman and tapestry designer, Jacques d’Arthois is the best-known and most prolific artist of the Brussels landscapist painters of the seventeenth century. These painters are also known as Painters of the Sonian Forest, the other major figures of this school being Lodewijk de Vadder (1605–1655) who had a strong influence on d'Arthois' early work (see lodewijkdevadder.net), Lucas Achtschellinck (1626–1699) (see lucasachtschellinck.net), and Ignatius Van der Stock (1636–1668).
The work of Jacques d’Arthois is almost exclusively and directly inspired by the Sonian Forest, large forest located near Brussels, of which he tirelessly depicts the wooded masses, water features and sandy tracks.
His work expresses in an original and seducing way the majesty, the mystery and the charm of this idealised nature, indifferent to human presence.
The intemporality and decorativeness of d'Arthois' work certainly explain the unfailing popularity he has enjoyed through the centuries to this day.
BIOGRAPHY
This biography is mainly based on the biographies by Alexandre Pinchart in Julius Meyer’s Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon (1878) and by Michel Kervyn de Meerendré, university thesis “Jacques d’Arthois (1613-1686)” (1971)
Born into a family of modest origin, Jacques d’Arthois was baptized on October 12, 1613, in the collegiate church of St. Gudula in Brussels. His parents were Henrik Artoes and Joanna Geeraerts. His godparents were Jacques Huysegom and Catherine van Blitterswijk.
On January 11, 1625, at the age of 11, by which time he had already lost his father, d’Arthois was registered (as Jacques Oortoes) as a pupil of the Brussels painter Jean Mertens (about whom this registration is the only information kept today). D’Arthois went on to spend there his entire apprenticeship until his appointment (as Jacques Artoys) as master of the Brussels painters’ guild on May 3, 1634, at the age of 20. He later changed his name to Jacques d’Arthois.
On July 10, 1632, at the age of 18, d’Arthois married Maria Sambels in the Chapel Church in Brussels. From this union, eight children were born—Jacques (1632), Nicolas (1636), Jan-Baptist (1638), Thomas (1639), Joanna (1641), and later Henrik, Marie-Anne, and Françoise (whose dates of birth are unknown). Jan-Baptist followed in his father’s footsteps and was appointed master of the Brussels painters’ guild in 1657. Joanna was feeble-minded and a constant source of worry for her father.
In 1639, at the age of 26, d’Arthois received his first apprentice, Jean de Saineville. Others followed, including Cornelis Van Empel (1643), Jan-Cornelis De Ridder (1645), Jan-Baptist Fabri (1646), Pieter van Waetom (1653), and Philip van Dapels (1654). D’Arthois’ brother Nicolas was also an apprentice with him.
The landscapist painter Cornelis Huysmans (1648–1727) spent some time in the workshop of d’Arthois and traveled with him to the Meuse Valley in around 1675.
By his thirties, d’Arthois had become famous and wealthy. He and his wife had bought several houses in Brussels and in Boisfort near the Sonian Forest; from 1648 to 1652, Wenceslas Hollar engraved copperplates after his paintings, and in 1649, Johannes Meyssens, in his book Image de divers hommes d’esprit sublime, qui par leur art et science devraient vivre éternellement (Image of various men of sublime spirit, who by their art and science should live forever), mentioned him among the most well-known people of the time.
However, from 1648 onwards and until his death, d’Arthois’ life was punctuated by a series of court cases linked to his speculative and never-ending real-estate business. That year, he was imprisoned for a month due to his debts.
These difficulties do not seem to have affected his artistic career or reputation, as illustrated by the gold medal, showing the portrait of the king of Spain, which was offered to him in around 1650 by the Duke of Caracena, interim governor of the Southern Netherlands, and by the orders he continued to receive from the nobility and from the clergy to decorate numerous churches and monasteries (for example, the choir of the Chapel Church in Brussels and the refectory of the Rouge Cloître Priory in Auderghem, now a commune of Brussels).
In 1655, following the death of Lodewijk de Vadder, d’Arthois submitted his candidacy as a new Brussels privileged tapestry cartoon designer. He competed for this position with renowned artists, such as Guillaume van Schoor, Jean Claessens, Daniel van Heil, and Lucas Achtschellinck, and was chosen because of his recognized talent.
D’Arthois was friend and occasionally cooperated for the figures in his paintings with other artists, especially David Teniers II.
In addition to his own paintings, d’Arthois possessed a vast and rich painting collection that included the works of the most prestigious artists of his time, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Paul Bril, Albrecht Altdorfer, Theodor van Loon, Otto Vaenius, David Vinckboons, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Some of his debts were paid off with pieces from his collection.
D’Arthois died in the first half of 1686, probably in May.
Portrait of Jacques d'Arthois (1649), print by Pieter de Jode (1606-1674) after Johannes Meyssens (1612-1670)
Inscription (translation):
"JACQUES D'ARTHOIS,
Was born in Brussels in the year 1613, where he has his residence, his landscapes
in large and small sizes are considered as the most likeable of Flanders."
AUTHOR
The information contained in this documentation was collected and sorted by Emmanuel de Cannart d’Hamale with the software skills of Jean-Baptiste Felix.
SOURCES
The information was mainly found in museums, documentation centers, and libraries, including the Frick Art Reference Library (New York), the Louvre (Paris), RKD (The Hague), the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brussels), the Royal Library of Belgium (Brussels), the Rubenianum (Antwerp), the Thomas J. Watson Library (New York), the Witt Art Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art and The Courtauld's Photographic Collections (London); in the archives of Jan De Maere (Brussels), Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Cards Collection (the RKD, The Hague), Michel Kervyn de Meerendré (Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve), and Pierre de Séjournet de Rameignies (the Rubenianum, Antwerp); and in online databases, such as RKD Research, Artcyclopedia, Art UK, Art Renewal Centre, BALat-KIK-IRPA, BHA and Rila, Bildindex, Bridgeman Art Library, Culture.fr, Culturitalia, Europeana, Getty Provenance Index, Joconde, Frick Digital Collections, Vlaamse Kunstcollectie, VADS, Web Gallery of Art, WikiPaintings, Arcadia, Artnet, Artprice, Artstor, FindArtinfo, Invaluable, Lot-Art, Lot-Tissimo, and Mutualart.
ICONOGRAPHY
The images of the works posted on this site are for information and identification, not for esthetical or reproduction purposes. Their quality is sometimes poor, and some are truncated. Hopefully, their quality will improve over time, thanks to new publications or contributions of visitors.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following people collaborated in different ways in the preparation of this site and are warmly thanked: Hilde Avet * Jos Beerens * Marie Bouvier * Rebekah Cobb * Philippe Dellis * Lara de Merode * Claudia Duponchel * Thomas Foerster * Gernot Frankhäuser * Virginie Frelin-Cartigny * Ingrid Godderis * Gerlinde Gruber * Flore Guiot * stefaan Hautekeete * Mariel Hennequin * Maike Hohn * Anne-Marie Jacobs * Guillaume Kazerouni * Joelle Kinet * Claudia Koch * Konstanze Krüger * Cecile Kruyfhooft * Annik Le Marrec * Cornelia Manegold * Monika Mayer * Kate O'Donoghue * Johnny Parmé * Charlotte Piat * Christophe Remacle * Alexander Röstel * Jochen Sander * Christelle Schoonbroodt * Cathy Schoukens * Alexandru Gh. Sonoc * Lawrence Steigrad * Martine Van de Poel * Magali Vangilbergen * Kjell Wangensteen * Erik Wauters * Hilary Wilkie.
VISITORS GUIDE
WORKS PRESENTED
The works presented here include paintings, drawings, prints, and tapestries that:
- are or were once given or attributed to Jacques d’Arthois; or
- if given to another or unidentified artist, could, in our view, be given or attributed to d’Arthois; or
- are by another artist but are related to works presented here.
Works attributed to “Circle,” “Follower,” “Manner,” etc., of Jacques d’Arthois are, in principle, not presented here, unless they could, in our opinion, be given or attributed to him because of thematic or stylistic affinities.
HOME PAGE
The home page presents all the documented works in the following order: paintings, drawings, prints, and tapestries. The "related works", the works for which information is missing and those for which no image was found (yet) appear at the end.
In each category, the works that we believe are or could be by Jacques d’Arthois are presented first.
The paintings are sorted by size (from "S" to "XXXL", see hereinafter).
As only a few works are dated, a chronological presentation is not possible. As a result, the works are presented in an order that, in our opinion, reflects stylistic or thematic affinities.
The works for which the encoding number appears in red are signed works.
TABLES
The tables accessible via the top banner allow for sorting based on the following criteria:
Permanent collections : by country, city, collection, or inventory number.
Possessors (past or present, when known): by possessor or country.
Art dealers (when known): by art dealer or country.
Public auctions: by date, city, country, auction house, or lot number. For technical reasons, when an auction extends over more than one day, only the last day is mentioned.
Exhibitions: by year, country, city, institution, exhibition title, or exhibition number.
Bibliography: by author, title, or year of publication.
FILTERS
The filters appearing on both the left and right sides of the images on the home page allow multiple self-explanatory ways to explore the works presented.
For the filter “signatures”, several dozen—sometimes slightly—different signatures have been recorded. These differences reflect the different signatures used by d’Arthois, but also possible alterations due to age or restoration, or incorrect reading.
These different signatures can be regrouped into eight categories:
1. “Jacques (…)”
2. “Jacobus (…)”
3. “Jac. (…)”
4. “J. (…)”
5. “d’Art (…)”
6. “Art (…)”
7. monogram
8. not specified.
The category of the signature of each work is given in the individual card in the shaded box on the right. Clicking thereon will bring up all the works of that category of signatures.
INDIVIDUAL CARDS
The works’ individual cards contain self-explanatory information and some that may need explanation, such as the following:
Image: can be magnified by a click; their quality is sometimes poor, and some are truncated.
C number: corresponds only to the encoding number and has no other meaning; by clicking on this number, a work appears in its given position in the works’ general presentation.
Title: the title we have chosen is (i) an original title, (ii) an English translation of a title in another language, or (iii) a title given by us.
State: for prints, when there is more than one state.
Other title(s): various titles found for the work in their original languages.
Dimensions: height (H) and width are indicated in centimeters (cm) and rounded up or down to the closest cm or half cm unit (e.g., 10 cm or 10.5 cm); thus, the indicated dimensions are approximations and may differ slightly from those of other sources.
Sizes (for paintings and tapestries only):
| S: | H < 50 cm |
| M: | H 51–100 cm |
| L: | H 101–200 cm |
| XL: | H 201–300 cm |
| XXL: | H 301–400 cm |
| XXXL: | H > 400 cm |
Our assessment: The assessment of attributions to Jacques d’Arthois would require a thorough examination by an expert for at least two reasons: first, there are many very different signatures; second, due to their popularity, d'Arthois' works have often been imitated or copied. Therefore, this documentation indicates the attribution(s) given to a work but does not take a stand as to this/these attribution(s).
Accordingly, our assessments are as follows:
- "signed" : work that bears or is said to bear a signature (but without assessment as to its authenticity or signatory)
- "○" : work that, in our view, presents affinities with works bearing a signature or with one another
- "●" : work in which we see little affinities with works assessed as “signed” or “○”
- "signed ●" : work that bears or is said to bear a signature but in which we see little affinities with works assessed as “signed” or “○”, or work the signature of which is not one of JDA
- "insufficient information": work for which information is missing
- "related work": work not by JDA but presenting, in our view, some affinities with a work given or attributed to him.
TERMS OF USE
The visit and use of this site are subject to the following terms of use :
- This site has been developed by non-professionals, and as the work of Jacques d’Arthois has been largely unexplored, the information contained on this site is inevitably incomplete and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
- This site claims no scientific or academic authority, especially on the question of the attribution of the works.
- All or part of this site, including the terms of use, may be amended or removed at any time without prior notice.
- This site as a whole and the organization of its content (which is the original product of our activity), but not the information included herein (which is in the public domain or not copyrighted), may not be used without our prior consent.
- There will be no liability for (i) incompleteness, errors, or inaccuracies; (ii) attributions given or not; (iii) amendments to or removal of content; or (iv) unavailability of the site.
- Should you send us a message containing information or questions, we shall endeavor but shall not have the obligation to answer you or to modify this site accordingly.
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- Should any dispute arise, the law applicable will be exclusively Belgian law, and the courts of Brussels (Belgium) will have sole jurisdiction.
CONTACT
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