Jacob van Oost

He was the most important painter of Bruges in the 17th century through his portraits of members of the local bourgeois and his many altarpieces made in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation.

His grandson Dominique Joseph van Oost was a portrait and history painter active in Lille.

[6] Jacob van Oost was a prolific painter who made portraits for the local bourgeois and history paintings.

[1] A small number of paintings, mostly with secular, genre-style themes such as interiors with figures (musical companies, card players, fortune tellers etc.

[1] From the 1650s, his work started to display greater emotionality, the use of dramatic spatial effects and a palette closer to Venetian art.

While this stylistic development was quite common among contemporary Flemish artists, the clear structure and strong modelling of van Oost's work make his manner distinctive.

Through its emblematic and monumental character it can be regarded ais a masterpiece of high Baroque painting.

[6] The St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges holds 13 paintings by Jacob Van Oost, which can be viewed in situ throughout the church.