| Born | c. 1390 in Maaseik, Duchy of Brabant (now in Belgium) |
| Died | c. 1441 in Bruges, County of Flanders (now in Belgium) |
| Name | Jan van Eyck |
| Field | Painting |
| Patrons | Dukes of Holland |
| Movement | Early Renaissance |
| Known for | Pioneering oil painting techniques, detailed naturalism, religious and portrait paintings |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Notable works | Ghent Altarpiece • The Marriage of the Arnolfini • Portrait of a Man (Leal Souvenir) |
Jan van Eyck was a pioneering Dutch painter of the Early Renaissance, renowned for his innovative oil painting techniques and the meticulous realism of his works. Active from the 1420s until his death in the 1470s, Van Eyck served as court painter to the Dukes of Holland and is regarded as one of the most influential artists in the emergence of the Dutch Golden Age of painting.
Van Eyck was born around 1390 in the city of Delft in the Holy Roman Empire, which is now part of the Netherlands. Little is known about his early life and training, but it is believed he may have apprenticed with his older brother Hubert van Eyck, also a celebrated painter. By 1422, Jan van Eyck was working as a court painter for John III, Duke of Holland, based in The Hague.
As the official portrait painter for the Dukes of Holland, Van Eyck executed numerous commissions of the royal family and Dutch nobility. His meticulous attention to detail, mastery of oil paint, and skill at rendering textures and surfaces were unparalleled. Iconic works from this period include the Arnolfini Portrait (1434) and the Annunciation Triptych (c.1437).
Van Eyck's paintings for the Dukes of Holland were instrumental in establishing the naturalistic, hyper-realistic style that would come to define Dutch art. His technical innovations, such as the layering of transparent oil glazes, allowed him to achieve an unprecedented level of detail and luminosity in his works. This approach stood in contrast to the more symbolic, flat styles of Italian Renaissance painting.
Van Eyck's pioneering techniques and the unmatched quality of his paintings made him a hugely influential figure, both during his lifetime and in the centuries that followed. His art had a transformative effect on Dutch painting, paving the way for later masters of the Dutch Golden Age like Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, and Frans Hals.
Beyond the Netherlands, Van Eyck's work was widely admired across Europe, and he is considered one of the most important Early Netherlandish painters, alongside contemporaries like Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden. His meticulous, almost photographic realism was hugely influential on the development of portraiture and religious painting across the continent.
Tragically, much of Van Eyck's output was lost over time, with only around 20 paintings definitively attributed to him today. However, the works that survive cement his reputation as a towering figure in the history of art, a pioneer who helped usher in the Dutch Golden Age and laid the foundations for the flowering of Dutch painting in subsequent centuries.
