Jan van gools biography

Full Name: Van Gool, Johan

Gender: male

Date Born: 1685

Date Died: 1763

Place Born: The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands

Place Died: The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands

Home Country/ies: Netherlands

Subject Area(s): biography (general genre) and painting (visual works)

Overview

Artists’ biographer; painter. Van Gool was a minor painter of landscapes with cattle. He was trained as a painter with Simon van der Does (1653-1718). At the age of eighteen, he joined the Academy in The Hague where he took life drawing classes. At this institution, he served as a regent for many years. In his sixties, he wrote a collection of artists’ biographies, meant as an improvement on and a sequel to De Groote Schouburgh by Arnold Houbraken, who, in his turn, was inspired by the Schilder-boeck of Karel Van Mander. Unlike these biographers who were both writer and painter, Van Gool had little formal education. The two-volume Nieuwe Schouburg, his only important publication, appeared in 1750-1751. The biographies are interrupted with verses written by himself and others, and illustrated with engraved portraits of various painters. The book gives factual information on the lives, education, and the works of Netherlandish painters born between 1630 and 1725. It also includes the history of the Academy of The Hague. Van Gool was concerned with the level of training of young artists. Like Houbraken, he regretted the decline of contemporary Dutch art. By immortalizing successful painters, particularly those of the seventeenth century, he wanted to encourage young artists to emulate them and, in doing so, to restore the glory of Dutch art. In a moralizing way, he saw the success of an artist as directly linked to his training and life style. His observations as an art critic, however, were forthright and independent. He regularly visited auction sales and art collections and acted as intermediary in the art market. At the same time, however, he

Jan van Gool (1685-1763) PASTORAL LANDSCAPE WITH A SHEPHERD AND OTHER FIGURES, GOATS, CATTLE AND A DOG NEARBY, also a companion, HUNTING SCENE WITH FIGURES AND DOGS ATTACKING FOXES, ANOTHER FIGURE ON HORSEBACK NEARBY, WITH LAKES AND MOUNTAINS BEYOND Oil on panel, inscribed with the artist's name on plaques attached to the frames, 49cm x 68cm, (a pair), (2).

**Johan or Jan van Gool was born in the The Hague, Netherlands and was a painter closely associated with “The Dutch Golden Age of Painting” he was a pupil of Simon van der Does and Mattheus Terwesten and became a member of the “Confrerie Pictura” in 1711, he was also a director of the Hague Drawing School from 1720-1734, he travelled to England twice and is recorded as having visited in 1711.

He specialised in Italianate Landscapes, he is perhaps best known for the publication of his book on artists biographies detailing the painters of The Hague school.

Dutch painter and writer

Not to be confused with Jean Van Gool.

Johan, or Jan van Gool (1685–1763), was a Dutchpainter and writer from The Hague, now remembered mainly as a biographer of artists from the Dutch Golden Age.

Life

Jan van Gool was a pupil of Simon van der Does and Mattheus Terwesten. He became a member of the Confrerie Pictura in 1711. He was first regent, and then five years later became director, of the Hague Drawing School from 1720-1734. He spent most of his time in the Hague, but travelled to England twice and is recorded there in 1711. He specialized in Italianate landscapes.

He is best known today for his book of artist biographies, otherwise known as the "Nieuw Schouburg". The full title is De Nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen: Waer in de Levens- en Kunstbedryven der tans levende en reets overleedene Schilders, die van Houbraken, noch eenig ander schryver, zyn aengeteekend, verhaelt worden. (The Hague, 1750). He meant this book as an update to the original "Schouwburg" written by his friend Arnold Houbraken, whose 3-volume Schouburg was written in order of birth year, ending with Adriaen van der Werff, born in 1659. Just as Houbraken before him, he starts his book with a tribute to his predecessors, most notably Karel van Mander and to Houbraken himself, noting however, that Houbraken included many insulting comments in his sketches that he felt were unnecessary. He starts with the artists that Houbraken left out, choosing for his first subjects two painters from the Hague, Jan van Ravensteyn and Adriaen Hanneman. He then proceeded to write short sketches in birth year order up to 1680, ending Volume I with Gerard Jan Palthe. In Volume II he continued from 1680 with Jan van Huysum and ended in 1700 with the brothers Bernard and Matthijs Accama.

His book contains many notes about Hague painters and the founding of the drawi