Jacob van Loo(Sluis 1614 – 1670 Paris)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Jacob van Loo." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. NewYork, 2017.
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Jacob van Loo was born in Sluis (in Zeelandic Flanders), near Bruges, in 1614. His father, Jacques vanLoo, was a notary. He also spent part of his youth in Vlissingen (Flushing) and Middelburg.[1] We do notknow who taught Van Loo to paint. According to Arnold Houbraken he excelled at “painting nudes, andfemale nudes in particular.”[2] Because his conversation pieces relate to paintings by Anthonie Palamedesz(1601–73) and Pieter Codde (1599–1678), one of them is presumed to have been his teacher. Nicolaes
Moeyaert (before 1592–1655) is also mentioned in this context, as two copies after the work of thisAmsterdam history painter are associated with Van Loo.
The possibility of an Amsterdam teacher gains further support from a 1635 document pointing to a stay inAmsterdam. This document concerns a transaction between the art dealer Marten Kretser, anacquaintance of Rembrandt, and the bulb grower and art lover Jan Hendricksz Admirael. The two men
agreed that in exchange for two tulip bulbs and 180 guilders in cash, Kretser would give Admirael “tenpaintings in keeping with the contract made with Jacob van Loo listed.”[3] This document reads as though
Van Loo had painted all these works. However, another document related to this deal drawn up several
days later refers to these paintings as “paintings by various masters.”[4]Van Loo was certainly in Amsterdam in 1642 when he transferred a bond to Hans Pietersz from London. In
that same year he became embroiled in an indecency case. In 1643 he married Anna Lengele (ca.
1618–56), the daughter of a notary from The Hague and sister of the portraitist Martinus Lengele (d. 1668
Paris), who was living in the Nieuwezijds Achterburgwal, now the Spuistraat, in Amsterdam. Through thismarriage, Van Loo became related to the famous Mijtens family of painters; his wife’s mother was AnnekeMijtens.[5]The earliest dated painting by Van Loo is his portrait of Rutger van Weert and his family from 1644. That
Van Loo quickly made a name for himself as a portraitist in Amsterdam is apparent from the fact thatWilliam Frederick, stadholder of Friesland, en route from The Hague in December 1648, stopped in
Amsterdam to pose for Van Loo before boarding a ship for Harlingen, Friesland. It is therefore not surprisingthat a year later, Constantijn Huygens included him and Jacob Backer as the only artists from Amsterdam
to be considered among those who would receive commissions to decorate the Huis ten Bosch near The© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Jacob van Loo
Page 2 of 3Hague. However neither he nor Backer was selected in the end. He was also not asked to work on the newAmsterdam town hall, although he seems to have hoped for this commission. Despite having lived in the cityfor years, he did not buy his Amsterdam citizenship until 1652. However, the poet Jan Vos does mention
him in 1654 in his oft-quoted Zeege der Schilderkunst alongside Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69), Govaert
Flinck (1615–60), Ferdinand Bol (1616–80), and a select group of other artists who at that time were theleading painters in Amsterdam, most of whom did work on the town hall.[6] That Van Loo did not entirelylack official commissions is borne out by the two group portraits of the regents and regentesses of theAalmoezeniers Werkhuis in Haarlem, which he painted in 1658 and 1659.
In 1660, four years after the death of his first wife, an ailing Jacob van Loo drew up a will naming his six
children as his heirs and the painter Gerard Pietersz. van Zijl (ca. 1607–65), their guardian.[7] Shortly
afterward his life took a most tragic turn when he fell out with the famously aggressive wine merchant
Hendrik Breda. During the fight, the result of a long-running disagreement, Van Loo stabbed the wine
merchant in the abdomen. The man died on the spot. Van Loo did not wait for his case to be heard, but fledwith his children to Paris. After two failed attempts to get him to appear in court, Van Loo was sentenced inabsentia to eternal exile from Holland and West Friesland on pain of “execution by the sword.”[8]In Paris, Van Loo was reçu by the Académie Royale in 1663, having submitted a portrait of the painterMichel Corneille (1601–64) (his morceau de réception) to gain admission. He died on 26 November 1670.
His son, Abraham Louis van Loo, became the progenitor of an important line of French artists, including
Carle van Loo (1705–65). Van Loo’s only pupil from his Amsterdam period is the famous painter of elegant
conversation pieces, Eglon Hendrick van der Neer (ca. 1634–1703), whose work, however, bears nodiscernible trace of Van Loo’s influence.[9]- Piet Bakker

Endnotes
1. Unless otherwise stated, this biography is based largely on David Mandrella,Jacob van Loo
1614–1670 (Paris, 2011).
2. “In’t schilderen van naakte beelden, inzonderheid vrouwtjes.” Arnold Houbraken, De grooteschouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen , 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21;
rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 3, 172.
3. “Thien schilderijen als blijckt bij het contract daeraf met Jakob van Loo gemaeckt.” Abraham
Bredius, “Waarom Jacob van Loo in 1660 Amsterdam verliet,” Oud-Holland 34 (1916): 49.
4. “Stucken schilderyen van verscheyden meesters.” N. W. Posthumus, “De speculatie in tulpen
in de jaren 1636 en 1637,” Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek 13 (1927): 17–19. Also see: John
Michael Montias, Art at Auction in 17th-Century Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 2002), 73–76.
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Jacob van Loo
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5. Onno ter Kuile, “Daniel Mijtens, ‘His Majesties Picture-Drawer,’”Nederlands KunsthistorischJaarboek 20 (1969): 18–19.
6. Jan Vos, Alle de gedichten van den poëet Jan Vos … (Amsterdam, 1662), 125–41, esp. 140.
7. Abraham Bredius, “Waarom Jacob van Loo in 1660 Amsterdam verliet,” Oud-Holland 34(1916): 50.
8. Metten zwaarde te werden geëxecuteert.” Abraham Bredius, “Waarom Jacob van Loo in 1660
Amsterdam verliet,” Oud-Holland 34 (1916): 48.
9. See the biography of Eglon van der Neer in this catalogue.

LiteratureVos, Jan. Alle de gedichten van den poëet Jan Vos … Amsterdam, 1662, 125–41, esp.
140.
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980.
Bredius, Abraham. “Waarom Jacob van Loo in 1660 Amsterdam verliet.” Oud-Holland 34(1916): 47–52.
Posthumus, N. W. “De speculatie in tulpen in de jaren 1636 en 1637.” EconomischHistorisch Jaarboek 13 (1927): 3–85.
TerKuile,Onno.

“DanielMijtens,‘HisMajestiesPicture-Drawer.’” Nederlands

Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 20 (1969): 1–106.
Mandrella, David. Jacob van Loo 1614–1670. Paris, 2011.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection