Vanquishing the Shadow: Jan Lievens Comes to Light after 250 Years

Abstract

Jan Lievens (1607–1674), a colleague and competitor of Rembrandt, adopted a variety of styles throughout his career to meet the demands of a diverse group of patrons. This has made it difficult for art historians to position him within the history of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, as his activities in Leiden, London, Antwerp, The Hague and Amsterdam reveal vastly different artistic personae. This article reviews the literature on the artist, from the earliest writings by his contemporaries to the recent 2008–2009 exhibition, in an effort to map his critical fortunes against the changing shape of art history Rembrandt's legacy. The image of Lievens that results demonstrates that only now can his significance in the history of Northern art be secured.