Name Nicolaas Eyck | Died 1679 | |
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Nicolaas van Eyck or Nicolaes van Eyck (1617, Antwerp – 1679, Antwerp), was a Flemish painter of landscapes, equestrian and battle scenes, civil processions and portraits.
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Life
Nicolaas van Eyck was born in Antwerp as the son of the tailor Nicolaas van Eyck and Joanna Ros. He became a pupil in Antwerp of the important genre and history painter Theodoor Rombouts under whom he started to study in 1632.
He was a captain of a local schutterij and this may be a reason why he painted military scenes.
He was friends with the flower painter Jan Philip van Thielen, who had also been a pupil of Rombouts. Van Eyck was godfather to at least one of van Thielen's nine children.
He was the teacher of Pieter Hofman. His sons Nicolaas II and Jan Carel van Eyck became painters. Jan Carel was a student of Jan Erasmus Quellinus and spent time in Italy.
Work
Nicolaas van Eyck is principally known for his landscapes with soldiers and horsemen engaged in battle or resting. He painted a number of compositions representing scenes of urban warfare and rebellion. He also painted civil processions, including a composition representing the big parade of the civil guard of Antwerp on the Meir. A work referred to as a Scene of a rebellion (Hospitalfield Arts), most likely does not depict a rebellion but rather a part of the entertainment of a parade by the civil guard. The onlookers assisting at the scene are unperturbed by the view of the apparent shooting of three unarmed men by a row of arquebusiers. Clearly they were not using real bullets but only powder. Such displays appear to have been commun in civil parades of that time as can be seen in the Ommeganck in Brussels on 31 May 1615 by Denis van Alsloot, which includes a similar scene.
Van Eyck also painted tronie-style portraits such as the Portrait of a drinking man (sold at Van Ham). He further painted the Equestrian Portrait of a Young Gentleman with his Squire in front of a Peristyle (Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille).
Van Eyck was one of the many Antwerp painters who collaborated on a Cabinet of Pictures (Royal Collection, England) by Jacob de Formentrou. This painting dated between 1654 and 1659 represents an art gallery with works of important Antwerp masters and can be regarded as a carefully crafted advertisement of the current talent and past legacy of the Antwerp school of painting. The inclusion in the art gallery's collection of a work by van Eyck depicting an equestrian battle (the second-highest canvas on the right side of the right-hand wall) shows that he was at the time considered to be a leading painter in Antwerp.