Jan Wildens

Jan Wildens (1586 in Antwerp – 16 October 1653 in Antwerp) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman specializing in landscapes. His Realist landscapes show an eye for detail and have a serene character. He was a regular collaborator with Rubens and other leading Flemish Baroque painters of his generation in whose compositions he painted the landscapes.

Life Jan Wildens was born in Antwerp as the son of Hendrick Wildens and Magdalena van Vosbergen. His father died when he was still young. His mother remarried to Cornelis Cock, who later became the father in law of the Antwerp portrait painter Cornelis de Vos. In 1596 Jan Wildens was registered at the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke as an apprentice of Pieter van der Hulst (I) (also known as 'Peter Verhulst' or 'Floris Verhulst'), (c. 1565 – c. 1628), a minor painter from Mechelen.

Wildens became a master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1604. He set up his own workshop and took Abraham Leerse on as an apprentice in 1610. Wildens also became a frequent collaborator of other leading Antwerp painters. In 1619 Wildens married Maria Stappaert with Rubens acting as a witness at the wedding. Maria's niece Hélène Fourment later became Rubens' second wife. Maria Stappaert died in 1624 after bearing Wildens two sons, both of whom became painters: Jan Baptist (1620–1637) and Jeremias (1621–1653). Both of his sons died young.

Wildens became very prosperous thanks to his professional success. He worked for prominent patrons and participated, like many other Antwerp artists, on the decorations for the Joyous Entry into Antwerp of the new governor of the Habsburg Netherlands Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. Rubens was in overall charge of this project. Wildens contributed two city views of Antwerp for the occasion.

In the house he inherited from his mother in the Lange Nieuwstraat in Antwerp he opened a picture gallery with over 700 paintings. The gallery was very successful and was later operated by his son Jeremias.

Work Jan Wildens was a landscape specialist. The compositions of his early landscapes before his visit to Italy were influenced by Flemish artists such as Jan Brueghel the Younger, Gillis van Coninxloo, Joos de Momper and Adriaan van Stalbemt. In this early period he produced a series of 12 drawings of the months, which were engraved and published by Hendrik Hondius, Jacob Matham and Andries Stock.

In Italy Wildens discovered the landscape art of his compatriot Paul Bril with its realism and eye for detail.

Later in his career he painted landscapes for many other Antwerp painters such as Jacob Jordaens, Frans Francken the Younger, Frans Snyders, Paul de Vos, Abraham Janssens, Jan Boeckhorst, Gerard Seghers, Theodoor Rombouts and Cornelis Schut.

His work in the 1620s and 1630s employed decorative forms, loose compositions and a broad technique reminiscent of Rubens. Earlier influences on him such as Jan Brueghel the Younger and Paul Bril continued to play a significant role. Wildens' works show a preference for a calm and gentle approach expressed in marked symmetry of composition and soft, subtle colours. The contrast with Rubens is evident in Wildens' serene Landscape with Dancing Shepherds (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp), which was partly inspired by Rubens' more dynamic Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock (National Gallery, London).

After 1640 he adopted the rather sketchy method and the vibrating, atmospheric light that Rubens used in his own later landscapes. Wildens also increased the dramatic element in his landscapes from that time.