Dutch painter

Leiden 1609/10 – after 1650

 

Rare painter of genre scenes and occasionally of history subjects (also set in interiors) and of portraits.

 

Jacob(us) signed his paintings with “Spreu” or “Spreeuwen”; at his marriage in 1639 his name is again spelt “Spreeuwen”.

Jacob’s father was a baker on the Noordeinde in Leiden. He came originally from Middelburg in Zeeland; he spelt his own name as “Cornelis Jorisz. Sprey”.

Van Spreeuwen was one of the so-called Leiden Fine Painters. It has been suggested during the 18th century that van Spreeuwen was a pupil of Gerrit Dou in 1643, but there is no supporting documentation. Still it is very plausible that van Spreeuwen worked in Dou’s workshop around that time, just as his brother-in-law, Arent van Dam, might have. 

Dou was Rembrandt’s very first pupil. There has been further speculation that van Spreeuwen worked in Rembrandt’s studio in Amsterdam between 1640 and 1650, but this too cannot be substantiated. 

Not a great deal is known about van Spreeuwen, except for the obvious influence of these two great masters, the body of his work being concealed under wrong attributions.

Van Spreeuwen’s first wife died in 1646 in Leiden and Jacob remarried in 1649 in Scheveningen the widow of the Amsterdam genre painter Pieter Quast.

 

In 1648 he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Leiden. 

 

His place and date of death are unknown.