Jean Grandjean (painter)

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Jean Grandjean (1752–1781)

Jean Grandjean (born February 5, 1752 in Amsterdam , † November 12, 1781 in Rome ) was a Dutch painter and etcher.

He came from poor French parents. His father was a glove maker . Jean showed great talent for drawing, but his parents could not afford him much tuition. He then did an apprenticeship with the landscape painter Jacob Verstegen for a short time . But since he had to earn money for his maintenance, he began to make portraits and smaller works for the art dealer Jan de Groot at an early age .

His achievements made him so popular that he was accepted by Jurian Andriessen (1742-1819), with whom he made very rapid progress. In 1771 his name appeared in the lists of the Lucas Guild. His zeal was rewarded with three prizes, which he won successively at the drawing academy. He has now received several commissions for historical pieces and preferably for landscapes with historical staffage, which suits him best. In 1777 he became a co-founder of the philanthropic society Felix Meritis . Since he was now earning from his work, he was able to continue his education by traveling. So he first went to Düsseldorf to look at the treasures in the gallery there. Here he got to know the Italian masters. Subsequently, on June 2, 1779, he went to Rome as the first Dutch painter in over 50 years, where he found influential patrons with Cardinal Albani and the coin collector Pieter van Damme (* 1727; † January 13, 1806). He worked very hard here, both for his friends in Rome and for art lovers back home, but died at the end of 1781. He was buried as a Protestant in the Protestant cemetery at the pyramid of Cajus Cestius .

This artist's work has now been dispersed, especially since Jan Tersteeg's (1750–1808) art collection in Amsterdam, which contained many of his works, was sold in 1808.

His most important works are an etched sheet depicting a bacchanal and, of his paintings, two views of the waterfall at Tivoli, the death of Sophonisba, Cleobis and Biton and his own portrait. Gray in gray he also painted several scenes from the poem Germanicus by Mrs. LF von Winter, several of which were engraved by Raffaello Morghen (published 1788) and can be found both individually and with the poem mentioned.

literature

  • General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , Volume 79, p.273
  • Georg Kaspar Nagler , New General Artists Lexicon , p.331
  • Roeland van Eynden, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst , Volume 2, p.376ff (ndl.)
  • Wiepke Loos, RJA te Rijdt, Marjan van Heteren, Dutch landscape painters: Masterpieces of the 18th and 19th centuries , 1997, p. 142f, ISBN 3763023534
  • JW Niemeijer, Academies and Other Figure Studies from Jean Grandjean's Roman Period in Master Drawings , Vol. 12, No. 4 (Winter, 1974), pp. 351-358 + 399-409

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pope Clement XI. had banned the Bentvueghels (Union of Flemish and Dutch Painters) in 1720 and expelled the painters from town
  2. ↑ Pieter van Damme at oxfordreference.com
  3. ↑ The picture was in the drawing room of Felix Meritis you can still see it in a picture by Adriaan de Lelie (1755–1820) from 1801.
personal data
SURNAME Grandjean, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch painter and etcher
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1781
Place of death Rome