Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman

Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen · 1629

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Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen

Anglo-Dutch · 1593–1661

Cornelis Janssens was an Anglo-Dutch painter of portraits. Born of Dutch or Flemish parents who fled to London from Antwerp to escape religious persecution, Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen probably trained in the northern Netherlands. Around 1618 he established himself as a portrait painter in London. His signed or monogrammed portraits number several hundred; he is the first English-born painter known to have made so many. He was active in England, from at least 1618 to 1643, when he moved to Middelburg in the Netherlands to escape the English Civil War. Between 1646 and 1652 he lived in Amsterdam, before settling in Utrecht, where he died.

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life: 1593–1661life
rights: Public domainrights

The work

A selection of 4 works, free to stream.

Portrait of an Unknown Lady
Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen · 1629
Tate Britain

Study of a Woman's Hands
Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen
Getty Center

Anna Maria van Schurman
Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen
National Gallery of Art

Works worth knowing

1 of Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen's works, and what makes each one worth a look.

How Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen worked

From the record of their own practice.

He has been described as "one of the most gifted and prolific portrait painters practising in England during the 1620s and 1630s". However, he has also been described as "a good painter, but unable to compete with the flair and superlative skills of van Dyck". Compared with van Dyck, Janssens’ portraits were "lower key but exquisite". He was one of the few artists in England at this time who consistently signed and dated their work, except for his later full-lengths, which his clients may have hoped would be mistaken for more expensive van Dycks.