Flemish painter

Active 1691 – in or after 1735

 

His first name is regularly spelt Jacobus.

 

Still life painter of flowers and of fruit.

Pupil in Antwerp from the year 1691/1692 of his brother-in-law Gaspar Peeter II Verbruggen (Atwerp 1664 – 1730 Antwerp), who strongly influenced our painter. It is not known where van Herck was born.

 

Gaspar Peeter II was a very successful still life painter who was already accepted as a Master in the Painter’s Guild of Antwerp at the tender age of 13. He had been in his turn a pupil of his father Gaspar Peeter I (1635 – 1681) who had joined the local Painter’s Guild at the age of 15.

 

Van Herck joined the Painter’s Guild of Antwerp as a Master in the year 1694/1695, together with Balthasar Hyacinth Verbruggen, the half-brother of their Master, Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen II. 

 

Van Herck was several times elected Dean of the Painter’s Guild of Antwerp: in 1720, in 1734 and for the last time in 1735. That year was the last mention known of van Herck.

 

Our painter also worked together with figure painters, such as François Liberti and possibly Peter Ykens) on allegorical and mythological subjects. Van Herck would paint flowers or fruit, sometimes in garlands, around putti or young women or nymphs.