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Jacob de, II Gheyn
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| • Nationality: Dutch |
| • Roles: Artist, Painter, Draftsman, Printmaker, Engraver , Designer. |
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Jacob de, II Gheyn |
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Jacob de Gheyn II (1565- 1629)
Born in Antwerp, de Gheyn moved to Haarlem in 1585 and spent a five year apprenticeship in the studio of Hendrik Goltzius, one of the most famous graphic artists and painters of the period. He soon became an accomplished engraver who was entrusted with important work. This is evident from the fact that he was allowed to engrave (and add his name to that of Goltzius on) a series of prints of Dutch military officials in mannerist, heroic poses , published between 1587 and 1589 as a sequel to a series of prints depicting Roman heroes. The military figures on these famous engravings have long been identified as officers of Emperor Rudolph IPs bodyguard, but it is now clear that they are allegorical portraits of officers of the Haarlem civic guard.
When de Gheyn started his own studio, around 1590, he continued making engravings of single, standing military figures with allegorical content emphasized by Latin mottoes provided by learned Latinists whom he probably had met in the studio of Goltzius. By 1591 de Gheyn II was in Amsterdam, making engravings after his own and other artists’ work (e.g. Abraham Bloemaert and Dirck Barendsz.). There he was visited several times by the humanist Arnout van Buchell [Buchelius]. De Gheyn received his first official commission in 1593 an engraving of the Siege of Geertruitenberg (Hollstein, no. 285)—from the city and board of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Soon he was surrounded by talented pupils who did most of the time-consuming engraving. Among those pupils were David Bailly, Pieter Saenredam, Zacharias Dolendo, Cornelis Drebbel, and Robert de Baudous. All of them became famous artists in their own right. Robert de Baudous became de Gheyn's trusted assistant and later was the engraver of The Exercise of Armes.
When de Gheyn was commissioned by the Admiralty of Amsterdam to design a panoramic view of the siege of the city of Geertruidenberg in 1593, he came in contact with high-ranking military officers such as the famous Count Philip Von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, whose portrait he made. Connection with the court of the Stadtholder in The Hague brought commissions for artists who understood the needs of such a military court for realistic representations of the technical and heroic aspects of the war against Spain, which continued for 80 years.
In 1595 he married Eva Stalpaert van der Wiele, a wealthy woman from Mechelen. From 1596 to 1601–2 he lived in Leiden, where he began collaborating with the famous law scholar Hugo de Groot [Grotius], who wrote many of the inscriptions for the artist’s engravings. In 1597 de Gheyn received a commission to engrave the battle of Turnhout, the first occasion when the new army of the Dutch republic prevailed over the Spanish army in the open field. No doubt these successes brought the socially ambitious de Gheyn in contact with the Stadtholder's nephew John II of Nassau.
During this period de Gheyn started his own studio in The Hague, producing series of engravings on the most varied subjects. He was evidently quite successful, not only as an engraver but also as a draftsman and a painter. Perhaps his success as an artist was the reason why he did not make the engravings of the drawings for The Exercise of Armes. During this period he also began working for Prince Maurice of Orange. In 1605 de Gheyn was made a member of the Guild of St Luke in The Hague, where he remained until his death.
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