page_title: Jacob Huysmans
section_title: General
hierarchical_section_title: Jacob Huysmans / Work / General
context_page_description: Jacob Huysmans was a Flemish portrait painter who, after training in his native Antwerp, immigrated to England before the Restoration. He became a feted court painter and attracted the patronage of the Portuguese born queen Catherine of Braganza, a Catholic like himself, of whom he painted several portraits. With his exuberant style, he was during his lifetime regarded as an important rival of the court painter Peter Lely who favored a more sober treatment of his sitters.
context_section_description: Jacob Huysmans was principally a portrait painter.  Upon his arrival in England he did, however, rely on his skills as a history painter creating small pastiches of religious and mythological scenes by Anthony van Dyck. Even after having established himself as a portrait painter to the elite, he still painted history subjects and is known to have created religious compositions for his patron Queen Catherine of Braganza. His religious and historical paintings are more sober in style than his portraits.
  Huysmans influenced David des Granges (1611–1675).
  Huysmans' style has been described as exuberant, a quality that made it particularly appealing to the Portuguese-born Queen Catherine.  His style and handling of paint and application of colour are close to the Italianate Baroque style of Anthony van Dyck.  His palette is characterized by the use of high-keyed colours, reddish lights in the flesh tones, and a smooth, glossy finish.  Huysmans was particularly skilled in rendering the rich colours and textures of sumptuous clothes worn at the court.  He liked showing the interplay of light, colour and contrasting textures, crumpled satin against porcelain skin or glossy ringlets interwoven with jewel-like flowers.  Huysmans had a preference for depicting his sitters in costume and with props placed in theatrical settings and including allegorical symbols.  The grandeur he bestowed on his sitters evokes the work of the Italian painter Guido Reni and the 17th-century Bolognese school.
  Huysmans painted many of his female sitters as shepherdesses with clothing embellished with embroidery and jewellery.  He also often depicted female sitters as religious or classical figures. Three renderings of ladies in the role of the Roman goddess Diana by his hand are known: the Lady Elizabeth Pope as Diana (Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire), Elizabeth Cornwallis, Mrs Edward Allen, as Diana the Huntress (National Trust, Hatchlands) and Portrait of an unknown lady as Diana (Tate Britain).  These portraits follow a standard format depicting Diana with a hunting spear, together with a few hounds from her hunting pack and sharply delineated drapery.  The presentation was aimed to highlight the beauty, purity and chastity of the sitter. The pose of the goddess as well as the greyhounds with star studded collar are likely references to the Virgin Mary who in popular Catholic images of the Immaculate Conception was often depicted with a crown of stars.
  In a similar pastoral vein are situated some portraits of children by Huysmans.  Examples are the Family portrait of three aristocratic children with a sheep decorated with a floral wreath and a dog (At Dorotheum Vienna on 19 April 2016 lot 258) and the Portrait of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield, and his wife Charlotte Fitzroy as children (National Gallery of Victoria). The latter work depicts Edward Henry Lee (1663–1716), a Catholic and Charlotte Fitzroy, the illegitimate and preferred daughter of Charles II and his mistress Barbara Villiers.  The two had become betrothed as children and Huysmans' painting shows the pair as children.  The painting contains hidden allusions to the Catholic faith, which was illegal at the time despite Charles II’s religious tolerance.  The peacock symbolizes the resurrection of Christ and Christ as a gardener.
caption: Elizabeth Cornwallis, Mrs Edward Allen (d. 1708), as Diana the Huntress
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