Jan Wyck

Jan Wyck (29 October 1645 – 17 May 1702), also known as Jan Wiyck or Jan Wick, was a Dutch Baroque painter, best known for his works on military subjects. There are over 150 of his works known to be in existence.

In an era when French artists dominated the genre, the arrival of Wyck and other Dutch and Flemish artists in Great Britain from 1660 onwards provided the catalyst for the development of military and naval art in Britain. Like other painters from the Low Countries such as Dirk Maas, Peter Tillemans and William van de Velde, Wyck moved to England and worked there throughout his life, often under royal patronage, producing many fine works of battle paintings, portraits, hunting scenes and landscapes as well as advancing the development of British art through teaching.

Early life A sketch of the Old St Paul's Cathedral done by Jan's father Thomas Wyck in 1673. Jan Wyck was born on 29 October 1652, in Haarlem, then part of the Dutch Republic. The son of Thomas Wyck (1616-1677), also a Dutch painter, it is assumed that his father taught him to paint, although little is actually known of his early life. His father had spent much of the 1630s in Rome, refining an Italianate style, which can be seen in the works of both father and son. He painted a portrait of Monmouth on horseback in the 1670s, as well as many depictions of him in battle, such as at the Siege of Maastricht in 1673, and at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679.

Later life Jan Wyck began to school young British artists whilst continuing to work on his own projects, and became highly influential in the development of British art in the period, particularly in the genre of battle painting. One of his principal students that went on to produce great works of national importance was John Wootton, who exemplified British equestrian and military art in the early eighteenth century. Read moved to Whitehaven and became known as the "Father of Cumbrian Painting".

Jan Wyck died at his family home in Mortlake, Surrey, on 17 May 1702, aged 56.

Known works Lieutenant and Lieutenant-Colonel Randolph Egerton MP (d. 1681), the King’s Troop of Horse Guards, c1672 (in the collection of the National Army Museum, London) James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, 1675 (in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (London)) William III leading his troops at the Battle of Namur, 1690s? (in private ownership; sold at Christie's auction in 2008 for €6,250 ($8,020)) William III Landing at Brixham, Torbay, 5 November 1688, 1688, (in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, London) King William III, 1688 (in the Government Art Collection) King William III on horseback, 1690 (in the Government Art Collection) A cavalry skirmish, 1680s?, (in the collection of the Courtauld Institute, London) Cavalry Battle, 1680s?, (in the collection of the Courtauld Institute, London) A river landscape with travelers bathing, by a village A battle scene A prospect of Whitehaven, 1686 (in the collection of Lord Cavendish, Holker Hall) The Battle of the Boyne, 1690 (in the collection of the National Army Museum, London) King William III and his army at the Siege of Namur, 1695 (in the collection of the National Army Museum, London) The battle of the Boyne, prior to the death of the Duke of Schomberg before William III, 1690 (in private ownership; sold at Whyte's auction in 2008 for an undisclosed amount) Stag hunting beside a river, 1690s, (unsold at Christie's auction in 2008) A race meeting on Newmarket Heath, unknown, (in private ownership; sold at Sotheby's auction in 2002 for an undisclosed amount) A huntsman with a hare and hounds above Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, signed; sold Sotheby's 1986. Hunting party, said to be the Duc de Chartres in an extensive landscape, unknown (in private ownership; sold at Sotheby's auction in 1994 for an undisclosed amount) An elegant hunting party resting under a tree, a river and a village beyond An Extensive Landscape with an Army Fording a River, Said to be Louis XIV Crossing the Rhine, 1692 (in the Royal Collection) A Cavalry Battle In a Valley Beneath a Fortified City Horse Guards Parade, 1690s, (in the private collection of Ackermann and Johnson Ltd) Italianate Landscape with Town and Waterfall, 1680s? (in the collection of Tate Gallery, London) A Fortified Village in a Rocky Landscape, 1680s? (in the collection of Tate Gallery, London) A Rocky Landscape with Bridge and Cottage, 1680s? (in the collection of Tate Gallery, London) Defeat of the Moors by the British Garrison of Tangier, 27 October 1680, 1680s? (in the collection of National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh)

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