Lievens, Jan

Jan Lievens, also called Lievens de Oude, Livius Johanis le Vieux, or Johannis Livens, Lievens also spelled Lieversz(oon), Lyrins, or Leyrens, (born Oct. 24, 1607, Leiden, Neth.—buried June 4, 1674, Amsterdam), versatile painter and printmaker whose style derived from both the Dutch and Flemish schools of Baroque art.

A contemporary of Rembrandt, he was a pupil of Joris van Schooten (1616–18) and of Rembrandt’s teacher Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam (1618–20). After residing in Leiden for a time, Lievens worked in England (1632–35) and then in Antwerp (1635–44). In 1644 he returned to Amsterdam, where he received important commissions and where his work was greatly admired. Yet his last years were troubled by debts, loneliness, and wandering.

Lievens is remembered primarily for the works of his Leiden period, which show the influence of, and the competition with, his friend Rembrandt, with whom he shared a studio there. He painted religious, allegorical, and mythological subjects; portraits; genre scenes; and landscapes. Some of his landscapes were long attributed to his friend Adriaen Brouwer. During his stay in Antwerp his art acquired a strong flavour of the style of Van Dyck. In his later years in Holland, Lievens’ mastery of the Flemish grand manner recommended him to official circles, and he was commissioned to paint decorative canvases for the town hall in Amsterdam and other buildings. Some of his early etchings are of Rembrandt quality.