Izaak van Oosten

Izaak van Oosten, Isaak van Oosten or Isaac van Oosten (sometimes, due to a repeated typographical error: Izaak van Costen) (10 December 1613 – December 1661) was a Flemish Baroque landscape and cabinet painter active in Antwerp.

Life Little is known about his life and training. He was born in Antwerp as the son of an art dealer with the same name who had become a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1617. There is no record of where he received his training or with which master(s) he studied.

It is believed he painted for his father's shop and therefore did not initially register with the Guild. It wasn't until he was already 39 years old, in 1652, that he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke; after the Guild had insisted he join and pay his dues. He was active there for only about a decade.

He died in Antwerp in 1661 without leaving any known offspring. He was also influenced by the late work of Jan Brueghel the Younger to whom his work is sometimes erroneously ascribed.

His landscapes are simple with open spaces and mostly hilly landscapes typically filled with a pond or road and several clusters of trees. There is an overall sense of gentleness and calm in these compositions. An even, gentle light spreads over the entire painting and the trees are untouched by the wind. He appears generally not to have been influenced by the woodland painters with their preference for dense forest scenes. These themes allowed him to show off his skills in painting a variety of animal species – mammals, fish and birds, as well as the imaginary unicorns.

Works by van Oosten can be found in the collections of the Uffizi, the Museo del Prado, the Hermitage Museum, the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, the Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes, the Toledo Museum of Art and other museums.