Jan Victors

Jan Victors or Fictor (bapt. June 13, 1619 – December 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter mainly of history paintings of Biblical scenes, with some genre scenes. He may have been a pupil of Rembrandt. He probably died in the Dutch East Indies.

Ruth swearing to Naomi, 1653

He was a conscientious member of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church, and for this reason he avoided creating art which depicts Christ, angels, or nudity.[1]

Biography

Victors was born in Amsterdam. He was described in a Haarlem tax listing in 1622 as a student of Rembrandt van Rijn. Though it is not certain that he worked for Rembrandt, it is clear from his Young girl at a window that he had looked carefully at Rembrandt's paintings. He was only twenty when he painted this scene, and the look of expectation on the girl's face shows a remarkable study of character.[2] He seems to have abandoned painting well before the rampjaar of 1672, when, like many painters in Amsterdam, he fell onto bad times and took a position as ziekentrooster ("comforter of the sick"), a role as professional nurse and cleric, with the Dutch East India Company in 1676. He probably died soon after arrival in Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies.[3]

References
  1. Benedict, Philip (1999). "Calvinism as a Culture?". In Finney, Paul Colby (ed.). Seeing Beyond the Word. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. p. 37. ISBN 9780802838605.
  2. Hollandse Schilderijen uit Franse musea,1971, publication Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
  3. RKD Recordnummer: 80890, RKD artists
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