BOTH Jan Dirksz

(Utrecht 1610 – 1652)

Dutch painter and engraver, son of a draftsman and stained glass painter and brother of Andries, also a painter and engraver.
After a period of apprenticeship with his father, he became a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert, a well-known painter and engraver active at that time in Utrecht, where he studied the works of Italian artists: Raffaello, Tiziano and Caravaggio. In 1639-40 he travelled with his brother first in France and then in Rome. His Roman stay allowed him to perfect and stabilize his pictorial style. He oriented his compositions towards an idealized interpretation of nature, embellished by the influences of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, of the ‘ideal landscape’ genre. Therefore, the emerging feature of his works was the making of landscapes with blurred brightness and radiant sunsets.
Both brothers were registered in the list of Bentvueghels, but without the addition of the nickname. The Bentvueghels was an association of Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome, often opposed to San Luca Academy, whose members were registered with nicknames evocative of their works. Together with Claude Lorrain and Hermann Swanevelt he painted a series of portraits for Philip IV destined for the Madrid Palace of the Buen Retiro.
He engraved landscapes sometimes animated by mythological scenes or historical episodes.