Jacob Jordaens (Father: Jacob Jordaens Sr., a wealthy linen merchant; Mother: Barbara van Wolschaten; Spouse: Catharina van Noort) (1593–1678) was one of the three great masters of the Flemish Baroque era, alongside Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Unlike his two famous contemporaries, Jordaens never traveled to Italy to study classical antiquities or the Italian Renaissance masters. Instead, he spent his entire life in Antwerp, resulting in a style that remained deeply rooted in local Flemish traditions, characterized by a robust, earthy, and highly expressive realism.
Jordaens began his apprenticeship at the age of 14 under the prominent painter Adam van Noort, who also taught Rubens. Jordaens eventually married van Noort’s daughter, Catharina, and established a successful studio in Antwerp. He was admitted to the city’s Guild of Saint Luke as a “water-painter” (a creator of tempera tapestries and wall hangings) before establishing himself as a master of oil painting.
While he frequently painted monumental mythological, religious, and allegorical scenes, Jordaens is best celebrated for his lively genre paintings based on Flemish proverbs and folklore. Masterpieces such as The King Drinks and As the Old Sang, So the Young Pipe showcase his brilliant use of glowing colors, dramatic lighting (chiaroscuro), and crowded compositions filled with joyful, boisterous, and vividly human figures. His characters were often modeled on everyday people, giving his work a deeply relatable and grounded energy.
Following the death of Rubens in 1640 and Van Dyck in 1641, Jordaens became the premier painter in Antwerp. He took over many of Rubens’ unfinished commissions and received patronage from royalty across Europe, including the courts of Spain and Sweden. Interestingly, despite converting to Calvinism later in life, he continued to receive and fulfill highly visible commissions for Catholic churches until he died from an outbreak of a mysterious illness known as the “sweating sickness” in 1678.
Active in others filds : Tapestry Design, Watercolor / Tempera Painting, Decorative Arts.
