Jacob van Geel

1585 – 1638

Dutch painter. Nothing is known about his training as a painter. At some time around the turn of the century he became a member of the Middelburg Guild of Saint Luke, in which he served as both headman (1615-17) and dean (1617-18) Most of the surviving documents from his Middelburg period refer to his mounting debt. By 1626, possibly in an attempt to escape his creditors, the artist had moved to Delft. One year later Van Geel - then apparently a widower - married the widow Lisbeth Schraven. The marriage was evidently not successful, for the couple initiated divorce in 1629. Nevertheless, they were still living together at the time of Lisbeth's death in 1632. Van Geel was accepted into Delft's Guild of Saint Luke in 1628. Five years later, in 1637, he is documented as a member of the painters' guild in Dordrecht. We do not know when and where he died; his last dated painting was executed in 1637.

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