Jan de Momper

Jan de Momper, also known as Giovanni de Momper (16 August 1614 or 1617 - 1684/1704) was a Flemish landscape painter who, after training in Antwerp, had a successful career in Rome where he worked for an elite clientele. The artist was forgotten until his rediscovery in 1959. With his highly expressionist landscapes executed with a very free brush the artist occupies a unique position in the artistic panorama of Baroque Rome. Some art historian have suggested that he was the Joannes de Momper who was born on 16 August 1614 as the son of the painter Jan de Momper (II) and Elizabeth van Hoeswinckel. Jan de Momper (II) was a brother of the prominent landscape painter Joos de Momper. He is identified by some art historians with the Joannes de Momper who was registered as an embroiderer in 1635 at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a 'wijnmeester', i.e. the son of a member. Jan likely left Antwerp in the late 1630s when the family de Momper's large studio collapsed after the death of Joos de Momper, the leading artist in the family. In 1661 he was a well-established painter in Rome, as evidenced by a very important order from another distinguished art loving family in Rome, the Chigi family.

Jan de Momper was linked with the prominent Flemish battle painter Vincent Adriaenssen who was active in Rome. Jan's wife Agnes Vincentii, who died in Rome on 19 April 1684, was Adriaenssen's daughter. Adriaenssen was also his early mentor in Rome.

In 1684 Jan de Momper was recorded as working on the palace of the Chigi family in Ariccia.

Three of his landscapes are preserved in the Prado, to which they were transferred from the royal collection. The works were inventoried as de Momper but without indicating his first name, which had led to an attribution of the works to the more famous Joos de Momper. Another landscape attributed to the artist is the Grape Harvest in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. This work was originally attributed to an anonymous follower of Goya before it was reattributed to Jan de Momper.