Jan Boeckhorst

Jan Boeckhorst came to painting late and from outside. Born around 1604 in Münster in Westphalia, one of twelve children, he did not pick up a brush in earnest until he was about twenty-two, when he moved to Antwerp, the workshop capital of Flemish art, apparently to learn from Peter Paul Rubens.

Whether he was truly Rubens' pupil is not certain. The claim comes mainly from Rubens' own nephew. What is clear is that Boeckhorst absorbed the whole Antwerp manner, the grand movement of Rubens, the elegance of Van Dyck, the earthy weight of Jordaens, and became a fluent, adaptable hand who could turn out altarpieces, mythologies and portraits. Tall and long-limbed, he was known around the city simply as Lange Jan, Tall John.

He worked for a time on a large cycle of paintings for a monastery chapel, now lost, and after Rubens died in 1640 he was among those trusted to finish works the master had left incomplete. He stayed in Antwerp until his own death in 1668.