Johann Bockhorst
Johann Bockhorst (also Jan Boeckhorst , called Langer Jan ; * 1604 in Münster , † April 21, 1668 in Antwerp ) was a German painter of the Baroque period .
He was a close collaborator of Peter Paul Rubens . Bockhorst rarely used to sign or date his works. Because of this, some of his works were assigned to Rubens or Anthon van Dyck , with whom he was close friends. In the meantime, however, art history ascribes many of his works to him through style comparison or occasionally proves his authorship through archival documents . With his images of saints, he placed himself in the service of the Counter Reformation . Bockhorst is assigned to the Flemish painters.
Life
Bockhorst came from a respected family of dignitaries from Münster, who also wrote their name Boichorst . His father Heinrich Bockhorst was a doctor of law, member of the council and from 1619 to 1627 mayor of Münster. His grandfather Albert Bockhorst, who came to Münster from Rees , was a lawyer and also mayor of Münster from 1568 to 1572.
From Heinrich Bockhorst's marriage to Catharina Helskamp, the daughter of a judge from Rees, twelve children were born; Johann was the second oldest. His older brother Albert Boichorst enjoyed the esteem of Prince Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen and was syndic of the cathedral chapter and the collegiate monastery of St. Mauritz . His brother Heinrich Boichorst was also a lawyer.
Johann Bockhorst attended the Paulinum grammar school in Münster until 1620 . In 1621 he became a cleric at the collegiate church of St. Clemens in Wissel . He was not ordained a priest. He began to paint around 1626 and went to Antwerp, where he was probably trained as a history painter in the studio of Jacob Jordaens and Anthon van Dyck . 1626-27 he was a member of the magistrate of the city of Brussels . Until June 1626 he held the office of collector for the shipping customs on the canal between Brussels and Willebroek . It is not known whether he worked in Gaspar de Crayer 's workshop during his time in Brussels . The Antwerp Guild of Luke accepted him as a member in 1633 or 1634. At that time, Bockhaus worked closely with Peter Paul Rubens. 1635 he worked on Rubens's hunting lodge Torre de la Parada in Madrid and on the triumphal arches Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi the occasion of the entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in Antwerp.
After a first trip to Italy in 1637, he came to Rome in 1639, where he belonged to the Bentvueghels , the group of Dutch and Flemish artists based there. She nicknamed him “Dr. Faustus ”. His second nickname "The Long Jan" is due to his height, which was unusual for the time. In 1640, Hélène Fourment , the widow of Peter Paul Rubens, commissioned him to complete the unfinished works of her husband after his death.
Bockhorst's life dates are not known until 1649. At that time he had already made a name for himself, so that the art dealer Michael Le Blon recommended Christina Bockhorst to the Swedish Queen as court painter. Le Blon justified this with the fact that Bockhorst was the most sought-after painter in Antwerp.
Between 1650 and 1660 Bockhorst created a large number of works for monasteries and churches in the Spanish Netherlands. Paintings in Bruges , Ghent and Lo have been preserved . He also stayed more often in his hometown of Munster, and probably worked there too. He created the altarpiece Mass of St. Martin for St. Martini around 1654 , which has been in the Münster City Museum since 1998 . The high altar painting Christ on the Cross in the collegiate church of St. Mauritz was long regarded as the work of van Dyck; it is now attributed to Bockhorst.
Bockhorst also continued to deal with history painting; his works were in demand on the art market and found their way into art galleries in Europe. He also designed tapestries and illustrated books for the print shop founded by Christoffel Plantijn in Antwerp. His wealth increased. It enabled him to assemble a collection of works of art by other artists. In Antwerp he lived in a stately house next to the Carmelite convent not far from the Rubens House.
Bockhorst died in 1668 and was buried on April 24th of that year in the Church of St. Jacob in Antwerp. His own works that he owned and his art collection were auctioned off.
In Münster, Bockhorststrasse is named after the painter.
Painting technique
Art history worked out the special features of Bockhorst's painting technique. The gouache St. Sebastian is bound for martyrdom , created around 1630, made by Bockhorst based on an oil sketch by Van Dyck, which was created in 1620/21. It differs from the original in the dominance of the graphic line, oval faces and the depiction of eyes and mouths with dots. These characteristics also characterize the later work of Bockhorst. The outbreak of war , oil on wood around 1640, was exhibited in Recklinghausen as Rubens' work in 1963. Here, too, Bockhorst's typical painting technique can be found with the highlighting of the outlines of the sitter and the suggestion of mouths and eyes with dots. The head of Judith in Judith and Holofernes , oil on canvas around 1660, is depicted in full and oval shape, as in early works. Bockhorst's painting technique differs from Rubens' in that he laid a thicker layer of paint over the primer, often gray to umbra .
In the previously known works of the Septem artes liberales - the seven liberal arts , the non-material depiction of clothing and scalp hair is characteristic, among other features. This also applies to veiled robes, such as Apollon as the god of Delphi , oil on canvas around 1650. The young woman in a silk dress , oil on canvas around 1650, has extra-long fingers that are pointed, as in the pencil drawing of the Resurrection of Christ (around 1660) are executed.
reception
Bockhorst's work was largely forgotten in the period of classicism in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Since the end of the 19th century, paintings from the Baroque era have again attracted greater interest. Art history was devoted to Bockhorst's work and its importance increasingly in the second half of the 20th century. Since then it has been found that works ascribed to Rubens and van Dyck come from Bockhorst. However, it also emerged that other artists initially assigned to it were created. For example, farmers on their way to the market in the Rubens House in Antwerp came from Frans Snyders , a Brueghel student who also worked with Rubens. The Snyders painting was presented as Bockhorst's work at exhibitions in Antwerp and Münster in 1990. Subsequently, a work by Rubens' pupil Jan van den Hoecke was mistakenly attributed to Bockhorst.
There were only a few works left in his birthplace Münster. The city tried to fill this gap in the late 20th century through acquisitions and amassed a collection that is now in the Münster City Museum. An exhibition of Bockhorst's work was shown in 1990 in the Rubenshuis in Antwerp and in the LWL State Museum for Art and Cultural History in Münster. In 1998, the Münster City Museum showed its collection, which was supplemented by loans.
Works (selection)
- Peasants on their way to the market , Rubenshuis , Antwerp, around 1630, 272.5 × 217.5 cm
- St. Sebastian is bound to martyrdom , Münster City Museum , around 1630, 24.8 × 19.6 cm
- Self-portrait , Stadtmuseum Münster, around 1640, 30.1 × 21 cm
- The outbreak of war , Münster City Museum, around 1640, 27.2 × 39 cm
- John the Baptist , private property, around 1640, 121.3 × 96 cm
- Christ on the cross between the thieves with Maria, Johannes and Maria Magdalena , Stadtmuseum Münster, around 1640, 40 × 20 cm
- The Holy Family with St. Francis , Münster City Museum, around 1645, 43.9 × 27.2 cm
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Septem artes liberales - the seven liberal arts
- Grammatica , Münster City Museum, around 1640, 132.5 × 109 cm
- Arithmetica , Stadtmuseum Münster, around 1640, 141 × 140 cm
- Geometria , Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn , around 1640, 142 × 171.5 cm
- Rhetorica , Münster City Museum, around 1640, 139 × 159 cm
- The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence , Musée des Beaux-Arts Bordeaux , 178 × 100 cm
- Apollo as god of Delphi , Münster City Museum, around 1650, 60.2 × 72.5 cm
- Young woman in silk dress , Münster City Museum, around 1650, 111 × 94 cm
- St. Sebastian , Münster City Museum, around 1650, 116.4 × 86.4 cm
- Adoration of the Magi , Bon Jones University Gallery of Sacred Art, Greenville , 1652
- The Mass of St. Martinus , St. Martini Münster, around 1654, 310 × 230 cm
- The Martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria , private property, around 1654, 87 × 64 cm
- Mercury sees Herse , Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna , around 1655, 118 × 178.5 cm
- Vision of David , St. Michael's Church , Ghent, around 1655
- Judith and Holofernes , Münster City Museum, around 1660, 41.3 × 27.8 cm
- Erecting the cross , Münster City Museum, around 1660, 69.5 × 53 cm
- Resurrection of Christ , Münster City Museum, around 1660, 43.6 × 30.7 cm
literature
- Maria Galen: Johann Boeckhorst: paintings and drawings . Baar-Verlag, Hamburg 2012. (Catalog of works)
- Max Geisberg: The city of Münster VI: The churches and chapels of the city except for the cathedral . Aschendorff Verl., Münster 1941 (= architectural and art monuments of Westphalia 41, 6).
- Helmut Lahrkamp: The “Lange Jan” - life and work of the baroque painter Johann Bockhorst from Münster . In: Westphalia. History, art and folklore books . No. 60, 1982, Association for the History and Antiquity of Westphalia a. a., Aschendorff Verl., Münster, ISSN 0043-4337 , pp. 1–199.
- Jochen Luckhardt (arrangement): Jan Boeckhorst 1604–1668. Painter of the Rubens period. Rubens House Antwerp 7.7. - 2.9.1990. Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster 16.9. - 11.11.1990 . Exhibition catalog, Freren 1990.
- Wilhelm Adolf Schmidt: Bockhorst, Jan von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 784 f.
- City Museum Münster (Ed.): Johann Bockhorst - The painter from Münster at the time of the Peace of Westphalia . Exhibition catalog, Emsdetten 1998.
- Hans Vlieghe: Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700 . The Yale University Press Pelican Reader, New Haven 1998, ISBN 0-300-07038-1 , pp. 76-77, 95-96. (English)
Web links
- Literature by and about Johann Bockhorst in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by Johann Bockhorst at Zeno.org .
- Johann Bockhorst in the Münster City Museum
- Jan Boeckhorst on the website of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association with self-portrait
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cornelis de Bie mentions Bockhorst as a pupil of Jordaens in 1662 in Het Gulden Cabinet of Edel Vry Schilderkonst .
- ↑ T.Castor: Gaspar de Crayer , Saur.
- ↑ Vlieghe: Flemish Art , S. 76th
- ↑ see focus on Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Boeckhorst: King David plays the harp ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release on the exhibition at the Städel , 2007.
- ↑ Vlieghe: Flemish Art , S. 77th
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bockhorst, Johann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Boeckhorst, Jan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1604 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Muenster |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 21, 1668 |
| Place of death | Antwerp |