Jan Baptist Weenix
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Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1660), Dutch painter, the son of an architect, was born in Amsterdam, and studied first under Jan Micker, then at Utrecht under Abraham Bloemaert, and at Amsterdam under Moijaert, and finally, between 1643 and 1647, in Rome.
In that city he acquired a great name and worked for Pope Innocent and Cardinal Pamphili. He returned to his native country in 1649, in which year he became master of the gild of St Luke at Utrecht, where he died in 1660.
He was a very productive and versatile painter, his favourite subjects being landscapes with ruins and large figures, seaports, and, later in life, large still-life pictures of dead game. Now and then he attempted religious genre, one of the rare pieces of this kind being the "Jacob and Esau" at the Dresden Gallery. At the National Gallery, London, is a "Hunting Scene" by the master, and the Glasgow Gallery has a characteristic painting of ruins. Weenix is represented at most of the important continental galleries, notably at Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, and St Petersburg. His chief pupils were his son Jan, Berchem, and Hondecoeter.