Discover painter, draftsperson Jan Asselijn

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Jan Asselijn

male / North Netherlandish

painter, draftsperson

Name variations

This field records and makes accessible name variations, as found in sources. Alternate spellings, nicknames, maiden names - with or without the married name - are included in this category.

: Asselein, Jan
Asselijn, Janus
Asselin, Jan
Asselin, Jean
Asselyn, Jan
Enselin, Jean
Crabbetje
Krabbetje
Crabbetje/Krab was his bent-name (Houbraken 1719)

Monogram: JA
JAF

JA. and JA combined (ill. in Wurzbach 1906)

Qualifications: painter, draftsperson

Nationality/school: North Netherlandish

Born: Dieppe (France)/Diemen (place) 1610
Dieppe c. 1610 (Steland-Stief in Saur 1992). According to Briganti et al. 1991 in or shortly after 1610; according to Briels 1997 and Sutton/Blankert 1987 c. 1615. According to the Amsterdam citizen's register from 1652 Asselijn came from 'Diepen' which can be interpreted both as the village of Diemen, close to Amsterdam, or the French town of Dieppe.

Deceased: Amsterdam (city) 1652-09-28/1652-10-03
He signed his testament on September, 28; he was buried on October 3, 1652

Family relationships this field records any family relationship to one or more other artist(s).: Brother Abraham Asselijn (c. 1609-1697), gold thread worker, and of the poet and playwright Thomas Asselijn (c. 1620-1701). He married 1) in Paris to Anne Guerin, with whom he had a daughter Marie, baptized on 27 April 1636 in Paris (Toliopoulou 1991) and 2) in Lyon in 1644 to Antoinette Huwaart (Houwaart), daughter of Houwaart Koorman. Nicolaes van Helt Stokade married her sister there.

See also In this field, you will find references to names of groups or to the artists that made/make up groups. You may also come across references to other artists if there was/is question of collaboration without a joint name. This is the case, for instance, with artists who rendered parts of works by other artists (such as with P.P Rubens and J. Brueghel I).

Perelle, Gabriel

For the engravings by Gabriel Perelle after Jan Asselijn see: BD/0274

This person/entity in other databases

222 hits in RKDimages as artist
9 hits in RKDlibrary as subject
2841 hits in RKDexcerpts as artist
2 hits in RKDtechnical as artist

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Biographical information

Period of activity: 1634 - 1652
earliest dated work from 1634

Active in

Amsterdam (stad) 1621 - 1635
witnessed a baptism on November 4, 1635 (Briganti et al. 1991)
Frankrijk 1635
On 27 April 1636 he had a daughter baptized in Paris (Toliopoulou 1991)
Rome 1635 - 1644
c. 1635-1644 in Rome; according to Hoogewerff 1641-1645 (p. 93); according to Noack 1927 in Rome 1630-1645, based on drawing of the arch of Constantine signed 'Rome 1630'
Tivoli
witness his drawings of Tivoli and surroundings
Rome
Lyon 1644 - 1645
married Antonette Huwaart (Houwaart) in Lyon, while his sister was married there at the same time to Nicolaes van Helt Stokade (Levert 2017A)
Parijs 1645-05 - 1646-08
His daughter Cathérine was baptized in May 1645 Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, while he worked at the Hôtel Lambert (Levert 2017A). according to the diary notes of Willem Schellinks until Augustus 10, 1646.
Amsterdam (stad) 1647 - 1652
mentioned in Amsterdam in April and July 1647; citizenship on 24 January 1652 (Scheltema 1853, p. 69)

born in

active in

died in

Connections with other artists

Pupil of This field mentions the names of teachers or masters. What is at issue are the teachers who made a significant contribution to the development of a students, as opposed to every instructor they ever had. See also the 'Education' field.: Martens de Jonge, Jan
Teacher of This field mentions the names of pupils. What is at issue are the pupils who were significantly influenced by a teacher as opposed to every student someone ever had. See also the 'Education' field.: Courtois, Jacques
Moucheron, Frederik de
Followed by This field mentions the artist’s emulators. Although students can naturally also be followers, they are not mentioned again here. What is meant by followers are those who continue to work in the spirit of a predecessor. Sometimes this may happen a century later; there is no time limit. What is at issue, however, is that someone’s oeuvre must substantially follow in the manner of the artist emulated.: Buytewech, Willem (II)
Duplessis, Michel
Hackaert, Jan
Kobell, Wilhelm von
Moucheron, Frederik de
Perelle, Nicolas
Pijnacker, Adam
Influenced by In contrast with ‘follower of’, we speak of ‘influenced by’ when an artist was influenced outside the context of an educational setting or servile following. An artist can be influenced by several artists at once, or in succession. In addition, there may be question of a transition to a personal style which may demonstrate development.: Velde, Esaias van de
Influence on This field specifies the artists influenced by the artist in question, without there being question of an educational setting or servile following.: Begeyn, Abraham
Berchem, Nicolaes
Courtois, Jacques
Eismann, Johann Anton
Parrocel, Joseph

Asselijn also influenced the work of Claes Berchem, Aelbert Cuyp, Willem Schellinks, Karel Dujardin and Adam Pijnacker

Subjects This field specifies the various subject categories or genres that constitute the oeuvre of the artist in question. The contents of this field are generally based more on the documentation available at the RKD than on the literature.: genre, italianate, landscape (genre), equestrian painting, winter landscape, animal painting (genre), architecture (genre), interior view, peasant genre

Medium/technique: oil paint

Member of

Bentvueghels

Literature

Literature in RKDLibrary: 9 hits in RKDlibrary as subject

Houbraken 1718-1721 , vol. 2 (1719), p. 327, 359; vol. 3 (1721), p. 64-65 (as: Jan Asselyn)
Le Brun 1792-1796 , vol. 2 (1794), p. 34
Van der Aa 1852-1878 , vol. 1 (1852), p. 413-414
Scheltema 1853 , p. 69
Von Wurzbach 1906-1911 , vol. 1, p. 31-32 (with ill. of the signature and monogram)
Thieme/Becker 1907-1950 , vol. 2 (1908), p. 198
Noack 1927 , vol. 2, p. 70
Gerson 1942/1983 , passim
Hollstein et al. 1949-2010 , vol. 1 (1949), p. 43-44
Hoogewerff 1952 , passim
Van Gelder/Van Hasselt/Blankert 1966 , p. 13-14
Bol 1973 , p. 252-253
Witt Checklist 1978
Haak 1984 , p. 146, 303
Sutton/Blankert 1987 , p. 246-253
Briganti et al. 1991 , p. 114-121
Toliopoulou 1991 , p. 66, 67, 208, 209, 238, 239, 524 (dictionnaire)
Saur 1992- , vol. 5 (1992), p. 458-459 (text: A. C. Steland-Stief)
Van der Willigen/De Kinkelder (typescript 1993/1998) (Jan Asselijn between 1600 and 1616 - buried 3 October 1652) alias Crabbetje. Birthyear nor birthplace unknown. He is documented in 1652 as having been born at "Diepen", but there is no such place and there is uncertainty whether this would refer to Dieppe in France or to Diemen near Amsterdam (survey of arguments in exhib. cat. Utrecht 1965, p. 130). It is not very important anyway as he was manifestly educated at Amsterdam. Von Sandrart even believed him to be born there; in his first known small study of 1634 (Vienna, Akademie) he signed JANVS ASLEIN - Janus in Dutch has a connotation of rural origin - and he was apparently Dutch-speaking, as suggested by his Bent association, his Flemish wife and the great influence he had in Amsterdam in his last six years. Though Sandrart thought Esaias van der Velde was his teacher, Hofstede de Groot's conclusion that it must have been Jan Martszen de Jonge is now generally accepted. From the fact that no dated works are known for the period from 1636 till 1645, it may be concluded that he travelled South and lived in France and Italy in these years. It is not known when he reached Rome but he left probably in 1643. Before the end of 1644 he and his friend Nicolaes van Helt Stockade got married at Lyons to two daughters of a Flemish merchant there. He moved on to Paris with wife and baby but left that city before August 1646 (according to W. Schellinks). In June 1647 he was living in Amsterdam and the date 1646 on two paintings suggest he was there already in the autumn of 1646. His early death is recorded in Amsterdam. In the six years left to him in Amsterdam he exerted a profound influence on many painters and he did venture into fields other than his early cavalry battles and his new italianate landscape art. Rembrandt apparently got to know him soon and etched his portrait. Steland-Stief (in her 1971 monograph) lists 258 works, rejects 83 and gives the benefit of the doubt to many old sales recordings. Signatures or monograms have only been found (including some additions since 1971) on not yet a hundred works, probably painted in the years 1634-1635 and 1646-1652 almost exclusively. His case, rather well known by now, is a further illustration of the fact that only a few Dutch and Flemish painters would ever affix their mark, let alone a date, to the works they painted in Italy and in France; amongst the non-signed works generally accepted as being his, those painted there must be hiding. With a good oeuvre catalogue in existence, the summary below will be limited again to signed works in public collections. Cavalry encounters: Brunswick, Copenhagen and Vienna, Akademie 1634 (the latter just one rider); Berlin 1635; Amsterdam 1646. Italianate landscapes: Rome, Accademia S. Luca 1646; Schwerin 1647; Los Angeles 1652; Amsterdam (2 x); Munich, Bayer. Staatsgemäldesammlungen; Munich/Schleissheim; Bremen; Brussels (2 x); Copenhagen; Dresden (2 x); Florence, Palazzo Pitti; The Hague; Heidelberg; Karlsruhe; Nantes; Osnabrück; San Francisco; St. Petersburg; Schwerin (3 x); Trier; Vienna-Akademie (7 x; one co-signed by J. B.Weenix); Warsaw; Winterthur-Briner; Zürich. Nightscapes: Copenhagen. Winterscapes: St. Petersburg; Paris, Institut néerlandais; Worcester MA. Landscapes: Berlin 1652; Amsterdam Museum and/or Schwerin. The repair of dikes after a 1651 flooding near Diemen, resp. the flood itself (see exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1987). Animals outdoors: Amsterdam (the wellknown swan); Schwerin (head of oxen). A signed portrait of a camel is known (Steland-Stief no. 258) and both a bird and a pig are documented in contemporary inventories (nos. 248 and 256). (ed. M. de Kinkelder, May 2014))
Briels 1997 , p. 294
Porzio 1998 , p. 473
Schatborn/Verberne 2001 , p. 100-109
Harwood et al. 2002 , p. 42-63, 119
Dumas 2013 , p. 217-224 (G. S. Keyes, 'Musings on a drawing in Chicago: assessing Jan Asselijn as a draftsman')
Levert 2017A , p. 136, 142, 172, 357, 391 note 366, 399 note 539, Dossier prosopographique
Horn/Van Leeuwen 2021 [Houbraken Translated]

A. C. Steland-Stief, 'Jan Asselyn und Willem Schellinks', Oud Holland 79 (1964), p. 99-110
W. Stechow, 'Über das Verhältnis zwischen Signatur und Chronologie bei einigen holländischen Künstlern des 17. Jahrhunderts' in: Festschrift Dr. h.c. Eduard Trautscholdt zum siebzigsten Geburtstag am 13. Januar 1963, Hamburg 1965, p. 113
A. C. Steland-Stief, 'Zum zeichnerischen Werk des Jan Asselyn. Neue Funde und Forschungsperspektiven', Oud Holland 94 (1980), p. 213-258
A. Ch. Steland, 'Beobachtungen zu frühen Zeichnungen des Jan Both und zum Verhältnis zwischen Jan Both und Jan Asselijn in Rom vor 1641', Niederdeutsche Beiträge 27 (1988), p. 115-138, with 26 images
A. Ch. Steland, 'Reviews. Lisa Oehler. Rom in der Graphik des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts. Ein niederländischer Zeichnungsband der Graphischen Sammlung Kassel und seine Motive im Vergleich', Master Drawings 37 (1999), p. 192-195

Documentation RKD

This field specifies the location of the various RKD documentation materials. Most of the locations refer to our art-historical image documentation. In addition, you will find references to press documentation (clippings and short articles) here.

Archive location: fichescollectie Cornelis Hofstede de Groot
Project: Gerson Digital : France
Gerson Digital : Italy
Dutch Artists in Rome

External links: this artist in Ecartico

Permalink: https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/2761

Creation date: 1991-11-20; Last modified date: 2023-05-16

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Jan Asselijn

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