Jan Siberechts

Jan Siberechts (1627–1703) was a Flemish landscape painter who after a successful career in Antwerp, emigrated in the latter part of his life to England.

In his early works, he developed a personal style of landscape painting, with an emphasis on the Flemish countryside and country life.

[4] He developed a personal style of painting landscapes, which impressed George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham when he visited Antwerp in 1670.

He introduced into the foreground of his landscapes figures of robust country girls, dressed in bright red, blue and yellow.

These countrywomen are shown traveling in carts, on foot and on the backs of mules and in the act of carrying objects, bundles or baskets or crossing flooded roads or fords.

The volumetric modeling and the manner in which they are set against brightly lit areas of the countryside make the figures stand out from the picture.

[1] He occasionally also painted farmyard scenes in the vein of David Teniers the Younger such as the Courtyard of a vegetable farm (dated 1664, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium).

[3] Siberechts stood at the beginning of a long tradition of Flemish painters who made topographical paintings of the estates of the British nobility.