Pieter Jansz. van Asch

1603 – 1678

Dutch painter and draftsman, son of portrait painter Hans van Asch. He joined the Guild in 1623 and became a small-scale landscape painter in the manner of his teacher Jan van Goyen and of Salomon van Ruysdael. He did not make many pictures, as he had to take care of his parents. One of his sunny, backlit landscapes is seen in the background of Vermeer's Guitar Player (Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, London) He was greatly influenced in his early years by Willem van den Bundel (1577-1655), whose pastoral idylls were very popular at the time. Van Asch's style developed eclectically, showing at various times the influence of, amongst others, Salomon Ruysdael, Jan Wynants and Jan Hackaert. He lived on Choorstraat in Delft in 1655, paying a rent of 108 guilders; later on Doelenstraat where he died. In 1669 the town of Delft paid him 100 guilders for a painting above a mantelpiece in the Prinsenhof building.

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