Jan van der Vaart
Jan van der Vaart (or Jan van der Vaardt) was a Dutch artist who lived from 1650 to 1727. He is most remembered as the assistant to the Dutch portrait artist, Willem Wissing, though van der Vaart was an established artist in his own right. Besides portraits, van der Vaart created genre landscape paintings and engraved mezzotints. He spent the majority of his career in London, England.
Van der Vaart was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands. He started his career as an apprentice in his hometown for the Dutch genre artist, Thomas Wijck. Van der Vaart moved to London as early as 1674, at around 24 years old. While in London, he started working as an assistant for the Dutch portrait artist, Willem Wissing. Van der Vaart was hired to paint the background, as well as any draperies or still life within Wissing’s portrait paintings. Van der Vaart’s still lifes were exceptional, and art historians can tell which Wissing paintings that van der Vaart collaborated on.
Wissing died unexpectedly in 1687 at just 31 years old. Some suspect he was poisoned by a jealous rival, though it remains a mystery. As Wissing did when his own mentor died, van der Vaart took over Wissing’s portrait studio upon his premature death.
Though van der Vaart was moderately successful running his own studio, his work is generally seen as less refined than his predecessor’s. He sometimes worked on painting with the German artist, Johann Kerseboom. He continued with his own work until his eyes failed him, in 1713 at 63 years old. After 1713, van der Vaart worked cleaning and restoring paintings. He died in 1727 at 77 years old and was buried inside St. Paul’s church in Deptford in southeast London, England.
Back to the Artists page.
You can learn about different art movements here.
