Juan van der Hamen. Juan van der Hamen y León was a Spanish painter, a master of still life paintings, also called bodegones.
Prolific and versatile, he painted allegories, landscapes, and large-scale works for churches and convents. Today he is remembered mostly for his still lifes, a genre he popularized in 1620s Madrid.
Juan van der Hamen was baptized on 8 April 1596 in Madrid, therefore, he must have been born there just days before that date. He was the son of Jan van der Hamen, a Flemish courtier, who had moved to Madrid from Brussels before 1586, and Dorotea Witman Gómez de León, a half-Flemish mother of noble Toledan ancestry.
Van der Hamen and his two brothers Pedro and Lorenzo emphasized their Spanish roots by using all or part of their maternal grandmother's family name, Gómez de León.The painter's father, Jan van der Hamen, had come to Spain, as an archer, to the court of Philip II where he settled, married, and his children were born. According to 18th-century sources, the artist's father had also been a painter, but there is no evidence for this.Juan van der Hamen inherited his father's honorary positions at court and also served as unsalaried painter of the king.
Van der Hamen's artistic activity in the service of the crown is first recorded on 10 September 1619, when he was paid for painting a still life for the country palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. Noted for his vers
Prolific and versatile, he painted allegories, landscapes, and large-scale works for churches and convents. Today he is remembered mostly for his still lifes, a genre he popularized in 1620s Madrid.
Juan van der Hamen was baptized on 8 April 1596 in Madrid, therefore, he must have been born there just days before that date. He was the son of Jan van der Hamen, a Flemish courtier, who had moved to Madrid from Brussels before 1586, and Dorotea Witman Gómez de León, a half-Flemish mother of noble Toledan ancestry.
Van der Hamen and his two brothers Pedro and Lorenzo emphasized their Spanish roots by using all or part of their maternal grandmother's family name, Gómez de León.The painter's father, Jan van der Hamen, had come to Spain, as an archer, to the court of Philip II where he settled, married, and his children were born. According to 18th-century sources, the artist's father had also been a painter, but there is no evidence for this.Juan van der Hamen inherited his father's honorary positions at court and also served as unsalaried painter of the king.
Van der Hamen's artistic activity in the service of the crown is first recorded on 10 September 1619, when he was paid for painting a still life for the country palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. Noted for his vers
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