Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck was a highly esteemed painter who lived and worked in Bruges, West Flanders, in Belgium, and one of the most important and innovative artists in Northern Europe during his lifetime. He has few surviving works and even fewer personal records of his life and career, but he still holds a very valuable place in art history. Van Eyck mainly painted religious scenes and portraits; his portraits, especially, were done as exacting as he could make them, without embellishments to the sitter’s features.

He was also known to some as Johannes de Eyck. Historians believe that he was born between 1380 and 1395, at the latest, in the town of Maaseik (Maesheyck), in Belgium. He owned his own workshop in Bruges, and worked with artist Hubert van Eyck, who was presumably his brother. He did have another brother named Lambert who was documented in Burgundian court records, and who may have also been a painter.

Van Eyck's first major patron had been the leader of Holland, Zeeburg, and Hainault: John of Bavaria-Straubing. His workshop had been responsible for painting decorations in The Hague at the Binnenhof Palace when his patron, John, died, and he then moved his workshop to Bruges in 1425. Van Eyck’s earliest documentation was found to be in his employment record with the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, which was dated around 1425. Philip the Good had been informed about Van Eyck’s move to Bruges and hired him to be court painter and a diplomat. The diplomatic position was necessary when he was travel in order to paint portraits of prospective future royal brides and nobility in other countries.

In addition to his new employment with the Duke, van Eyck had joined the Painters’ Guild in Tournai, which allowed for his introduction to other important artists like Rogier van der Weyden and Robert Campin. Also during this time he experimented with using a slow-drying oil in his paints, and the result of his practices led to a revolutionary new advantage for painters. Previously, paints using other bonding agents would dry too quickly, and the oils that van Eyck discovered to be most advantageous to slow drying allowed for artists to take time on their work, rather than paint recklessly at top speed.

It is commonly believed Jan van Eyck invented oil painting. This is untrue. However, his work brought so much recognition to the technique, he may as well have been the inventor. Mixing the pigment with the slow drying oil instead of fast drying eggs, van Eyck gave artists the time they needed to paint the finer details of their subjects, something completely unfamiliar to artists used to working at breakneck speeds. Van Eyck used his oils to give never before seen detail to his work; the kind of detail that has since become a trademark of Netherlandish painting. Like Masaccio, Jan van Eyck used real light sources, giving his work gravity and his portrayed space proper depth.

Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert worked together on the very famous Ghent Altarpiece, which was completed in 1432. He began to sign his works with his motto, rather than his name, which is probably the first time in history that an artist had done so and a good reason as to why his works were not accidentally attributed to other artists by accident. Van Eyck's motto was, "As I can, not as I would"; his signature was ALS IK KAN, which translates to “As I can”, and it can be seen first on his Portrait of a Man in a Turban (1433). The highest peak in his career as an artist, which is agreed to be between 1434 and 1436, produced works such as Madonna and Chancellor Rolin; Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, and Luca Madonna.

A few art historians believe that van Eyck may have been an anonymous illustrator who took the name Hands G, and produced the Turin-Milan Hours. If so, then he must have created them early in his career, and unfortunately much of the work was later destroyed by fire. Only 23 existing paintings can be attributed to Jan van Eyck, because the rest have been lost or damaged; others are known only because they have been reproduced by other artists, documented and even photographed.