page_title: Jacob van Reesbroeck
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Jacob van Reesbroeck / Life
context_page_description: Jacob van Reesbroeck or Jacob van Rysbroeck was a Flemish portrait painter and engraver from Antwerp whose patrons included prominent local families as well as foreign aristocrats and monarchs.
context_section_description: Jacob van Reesbroeck was born in Antwerp on or shortly before 6 December 1620 (the date of his baptism). At the age of 14 he commenced his artistic training under Jacob Spaeingaert, an obscure portrait painter. He studied painting as well as engraving.  Van Reesbroeck became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1641.  In the same year he was inducted into the 'sodaliteit of bejaerde jongmans', a fraternity for bachelors established by the Jesuit order.  In 1642 he became a free master of the 'Schilder-kamer' (the "Painter's Chamber') of the Guild of Saint Luke.
  On 6 December 1648 van Reesbroeck married Joanna van Monnickreede in Antwerpen. A year later their only children - the twins Renier and Jacob - were born.
  In the period between 1649 and 1653 van Reesbroeck painted his first known work: the Portrait of Edward Hyde, (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was a British statesman who after the execution of Charles I of England left England and resided in Antwerp between 1649 and 1653 with his second wife and daughter.  Van Reesbroeck received many commissions for portraits from ecclesiastical clients, including Ambrosius Capello and Benedicto Blommaerts.  At the same time van Reesbroeck received commissions from local and foreign secular patrons.  He was asked by Balthasar Moretus II to produce four portraits of members of the Moretus family, the owners of the Plantin Press in Antwerp.  He also painted the portraits of prominent aristocrats such as those of Charles-Antoine de Calonne and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.
  In the period 1659-1660 van Reesbroeck had three pupils: J. IV Bol, Jacob or Michiel Boels and Peeter Hamens.  Van Reesbroeck was also active in local organizations such as the 'sodaliteit der getrouwden', a fraternity for married men established by the Jesuit order.  Van Reesbroeck was elected the 'consultor' of the sodaliteit in 1666 and 1682. He was further appointed as 'wijkmeester' (district master) by the Antwerp magistrate, a sign of his social status in Antwerp.
  In 1682 van Reesbroeck moved his residence to Hoogstraten, a small town in the immediate vicinity of Antwerp.  In Hoogstraten he painted four paintings representing the four church fathers for the Saint John Evangelist Church of the local beguinage.  These works form the only known works in the oeuvre of van Reesbroeck which are not portraits.
  In 1702 van Reesbroeck made his will and two years later he died in Hoogstraten.
caption: Portrait of a gentleman, possibly the sea captain Joost Verschueren
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