Jacob de Heusch

Jacob de Heusch heralded the 18^th century with this bustling composition, which is signed and dated 1701: the last year of the artist's life. De Heusch was primarily a landscape and seascape painter, in whose pictures it is rare to see figures of this size. It is tempting to speculate that such experimentation may have been prompted by the turn of the century, which would soon usher in new artistic styles.

De Heusch studied in Utrecht with his uncle, Willem de Heusch (c. 1625–1692). He moved to Rome in 1675, where he remained until 1695. There he became part of the Bentveughels, a confraternity of northern artists working in the Eternal City, that counted Cornelis van Poelenburch (c. 1594/5–1667), Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598–1657), Dirck van Baburen (1594/5–1624), Paulus Bor (c. 1601–1669), Cornelis Schut (1597–1655) and Simon Ardé (c. 1595–1638) among its founding members.