Artist

(b. 1603, Utrecht, d. 1661, Amsterdam)

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Details

Dutch painter and enfgraver, the son of a gardener. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to a glass engraver. In 1620, he went to France, where he spent eighteen months working for a glass engraver in Arras. He subsequently moved to Paris, remaining there until 1622, when he returned to Utrecht and became a burgher of the city. In 1626, Van Bronchorst married Catalijntje van Noort, and rented a house in the Minderbroederstraat. He was employed as a glass engraver but frequented the studio of the painter Gerard van Honthorst, which was known as the Academia. Van Bronchorst's son Johannes was baptised in 1627, and his son Gerrit around 1636. Both were to become painters, like their father. By this time, Jan was making etchings after paintings by Cornelis van Poelenburgh, an artist with whom he had frequent contact. He also produced a series of etchings illustrating the siege of Breda. Through his association with Van Poelenburgh, Van Bronchorst started painting in 1639; he joined the Guild of St Luke in Utrecht that year. His earliest known painting dates from 1642. Houbraken, incidentally, reports that he taught Caesar van Everdingen. A fire in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam created a demand for skilled glass painters, and Van Bronchorst received a commission for four stained glass windows, for which he was paid the princely sum of 12,400 guilders in 1651. During this period, he settled in Amsterdam and rented a house on the Rozengracht. He became a burgher of the city in 1652. Around the same time, several other painters moved to the city, some to work on the decoration of the new Town Hall in Dam Square. Van Bronchorst probably joined the Brotherhood of Painters, which was founded in 1654. He accepted a prestigious commission to paint the shutters of the organ in the Nieuwe Kerk and completed the project in 1655. Other orders followed, one being for ceiling pieces for the new Town Hall. Van Bronchorst was also commissioned to paint portraits of the regents of the Oudezijds Huiszittenhuis (1657) and an overmantel for one of the council chambers in the Town Hall (1658-60). A will drawn up on 14 March 1661 describes him as suffering from poor health. He died at some point between 21 November and 22 December 1661, and is believed to be buried in the Westerkerk. //

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Category	Artists
Artists by letter	B
Artist nationality	Dutch