During 40 years Jacob van Oost the Younger was active in Lille, a Flemish town 75 km S. of his birthplace Bruges, that had been conquered by King Louis XIV of France one year before our painter’s arrival there.

 

His interesting style is an international mixture of Flemish, French and Italian elements.

 

 

Flemish painter

Bruges 1639 – 1713 Bruges

 

Portrait, genre scene and history painter.

 

Son and pupil of the leading 17th century painter of Bruges, Jacob van Oost I (1603 – 1671). Jacob I was a prolific painter of biblical themes (mostly altarpieces), portraits and genre scenes. He had studied under Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) in Rome and was strongly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, later by Rubens and van Dijck. Jacob the Elder was the official painter of the city of Bruges from 1651 until his death twenty years later.

 

Jacob I was married twice. He had one child, a son, from his first marriage. After the early death of his wife in 1631, he married a second time in 1633. From the six children of this second wedding two became painters:

- our Jacob van Oost the Younger continued in his father's footsteps. 

- Willem van Oost (1651-1686) was a history painter.

 

Circa 1660 our Jacob the Younger went for two years to Paris. Circa 1662 he travelled to Rome, where he stayed several years until 1665. He returned to Bruges in1665 and remained here until1668.

 

From 1668 until 1708 our painter lived and worked in Lille, 75 km S. of Bruges. That important French-speaking, Flemish town had belonged to the Spanish, Habsburg Netherlands. Heading to Lille in 1668 was a charged choice, for one year earlier, in July 1667 it had been conquered by Vauban (1633 – 1707) for King Louis XIV and thus became (and still is) a French town. Vauban became its first governor. A few years later, from April until December 1672, the famous Musketeer d’Artagnan was its unpopular governor. He rapidly returned to battle and in June 1673 he was killed by a bullet during the siege of Maastricht.

 

In January 1670 our painter married with Marie Bourgeois, a woman from Lille. The couple had several children. One son, Dominique-Joseph (1677 – 1738), was also a painter. Many churches and abbeys of Lille still hold paintings by Jacob the Younger. Marie passed away in 1697. After her death van Oost frequently visited Bruges. He returned here definitively in 1708. He died in his birthplace five years later.

 

Van Oost had left Lille because in 1708 the town was besieged and conquered by two of the greatest generals of those days: the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. Lille had been one of the many dominoes due to suffer and fall in the horrible War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714). Following the childless death of Charles II, the severely handicapped last Habsburg King of Spain, both the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs claimed the throne. Many European states were afraid that a strong alliance of Louis XIV of France with Spain would be too powerful a threat for the balance of power in Europe. The War opposed France, Spain and Bavaria against Austria, the Dutch Republic, Great Britain, Prussia, Savoy and Portugal.

After it fell into their hands the coalition troops occupied Lille for another five years until 1713: April 11th Lille was given back to the French in the Treaty of Utrecht. Van Oost died a few months later in Bruges, September 29th.

 

Many of his paintings can be seen in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille, in the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai and in cloisters and churches of Lille, such as Saint Sauveur, Saint Stéphane, Saint Maurice and Saint Pierre. In Bruges you can find paintings by our painter at the Groeningemuseum and in the Saint John’s Hospital Museum.

 

 

The influence of Jacob’s father is evident in his style, both in his compositions and in his sensitive rendering of fabrics and furs. But following his early travels to France and to Italy our Jacob the Younger evolved towards a more flexible style, dropping the contrasting opposition between shadow and light. His style was more diffuse, suggestively using flakily smeared brushstrokes.

 

Our painting dates from 1694, when our painter was still living and working in Lille. The soft facial type and the gentle smile are typical of the van Oost’s. As one can appreciate here, Jacob the Younger’s portraits are much appreciated because he was an excellent painter of hands.

 

On the backside of the original canvas stood a text, which the restorer who relined the painting copied more or less correctly:

 “Effigies Engelbert Wonder Woude

Rel Deo Etatis 50

Par S.T. Van Oost 1694’

 

Our portrait represents a priest, aged 50, called Engelbert van der Woude. I could not find any information about this person. 

 

 

Because van Oost has marvellously painted the hands in this fully signed and dated portrait.