Old Print: Georg Christoph Kilian (1709-1781) - Jacob De Wit

Old Print: Georg Christoph Kilian (1709-1781) - Jacob de Wit


Georg Christoph Kilian (1709-1781)

Old Print: 75x55cm print - framed 95x75cm

FROM A PAINTING BY:

Jacob de Wit: 1708-1754

An artist and Rococo interior decorator on doors and ceilings, Jacob de Wit was born in Amsterdam in 1695. He was probably a pupil of Albert van Spires in Amsterdam and of Jacob van Hal in Antwerp, where he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1714. In Antwerp, he made a series of watercolour sketches reproducing Rubens' work in St. Charles Church, which became a historical document after the church was struck by lightning in 1718. A Catholic or religious painter, he was the greatest artist of optical illusionism in Amsterdam. In the Rijksmuseum you can see a piece of one of his ceilings showing Apollo dancing on the clouds with Minerva and the nine muses. The painted figures appear to hang in the sky. His style reveals clear influences from Rubens and Van Dijck, but also from Gerard de Lairesse. His pupil Jan Punt later engraved his sketches and published them in 1751. His pupils include Jan de Groot, Dionys van Nijmegen, Jan Punt, Pieter Tanjé and the brothers Frans and Jacob Xavery. The Weert Municipal Museum holds 19 of his paintings: in addition to a secular ceiling, two murals and several paintings with religious subjects can be seen.

Jacob de Wit died in Amsterdam in 1754.