Jacob Marrel

Jacob Marrel (1613/1614 – 11 November 1681) was a German still life painter active in Utrecht during the Dutch Golden Age.

Biography

Jacob Marrel was born in Frankenthal. He moved with his family in 1624 to Frankfurt, where he became a student of Georg Flegel in 1627. Attracted by the high prices for flower still life paintings, Marrel studied from 1632 to 1650 with Jan Davidszoon de Heem in Utrecht (city), before returning to Frankfurt, where he married Johanna Sybilla Heim(ius), the widow of Matthäus Merian, who died in 1650. He took on students, and his wife's daughter Maria Sibylla Merian became a renowned painter of flowers and insects, rivalling Rachel Ruysch as a female artist. She later married one of his pupils, Johann Andreas Graff, in 1665, after a 6-year tour he made to Venice and Rome upon completion of his studies under Marrel. He was active as an art dealer in Utrecht until 1669. He died in Frankfurt.

He signed his work with Jacobus Marrellus Fecit.