Jan de Baen

1633 – 1702

Dutch portrait painter, the pupil of Jacob Backer. He was one of the most popular Dutch portrait painters in the years 1665-1700, since he brought to his work the kind of elegance and flattery preferred by his patrons. The son of a merchant, he was already orphaned at the age of three. He was then taken into the household of his uncle, the magistrate and painter Heinrich Piemans (d 1645), who lived in Emden in East Friesland and who later gave him his first lessons in painting. After the death of his uncle, he was apprenticed in 1646 to Jacob Adriaensz. Backer in Amsterdam; after Backer's death in 1651, de Baen remained in Amsterdam, working independently as an artist. The only known work from his earliest years is an etching of the Burning of the Amsterdam Town Hall, 1652. A painted portrait of the merchant Willem van der Voort (Amsterdam, Historisch Museum) can probably be dated around the late 1650s. In 1660, de Baen moved to The Hague, where he is reputed to have achieved rapid success as a portrait painter. According to Houbraken, he was called to England by Charles II and worked for the court there. Although there is no clear evidence, the painter was probably active in London for some time in the years 1660-65. In 1665 he married Maria de Kinderen in The Hague; at least eight children were born to them, one of whom, Jacobus de Baen (b 1673), became a painter.

View all works →