Jan Frans van Douven

According to Houbraken, his father Gerard Douven was a canon priest in the Roermond chapter and had spent several years in Rome, where he learned to appreciate art.

His father died young however (aged 33), and his mother apprenticed him for two years in Liege under the supervision of the painter Gabriel Lambertin (who had also studied in Rome).

His work was noticed by Don Jan Dellano Velasco, the minister of finance in Roermond for Charles II of Spain.

[2] According to the RKD, he was the nephew of his teacher Christoffel Puytlinck, and the father of the painter Frans Bartholomeus Douven.

[3] In 1682 he moved to Düsseldorf, as the official painter of the Court of Elector Palatine of Rhineland, Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz-Neuburg (also called Jan Wellem by the local people).

Self-portrait, c.1715