Jacob de Wet II

Jacob Jacobsz de Wet II (1641, Haarlem – 1697, Amsterdam), also known as James de Witt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for a series of 110 portraits of Scottish monarchs, many of them mythical, produced for the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh during the reign of Charles II.

Biography

According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), he was one of five children of the painter Jacob Willemszoon de Wet. His father taught him to paint and he was first recorded in his father's notebook at age 16 when his father wrote that he sold one of his son's paintings.

Macbeth, King of Scotland, from de Wet's royal portrait series in Holyrood.

After completing his royal portrait series, and after a further two years in Scotland which included painting 34 scenes from the Life of Christ for Patrick Lyon, 3rd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne on the ceiling of the Chapel of Glamis Castle, de Wet again returned to Amsterdam. He is known for religious works done in his father's workshop for the Catholic community of Haarlem, portraits of wealthy Catholics of Amsterdam such as Jan Six, as well as hunting still lifes and landscapes with figures. He died in Amsterdam and was buried there in the Nieuwe Kerk on 16 November 1697. His widow Helena dying in Haarlem on 27 October 1707.