Jan van Almeloveen

Jan van Almeloveen (1656 – 1684) was a Dutch painter, engraver, and draughtsman of the 17th century, principally known for some neatly executed etchings of landscapes.

His Landscape with Harvesters illustrates the mid-17th-century shift in Dutch landscape art from a fascination with agricultural work that was prevalent in the 16th century, to a recreational interest in the scenery and the pleasures of country life.

Biography
He was the son of a preacher from Mijdrecht, Johannes van Almeloveen. We know the date and place where he was born from an inscription on the portrait of his father executed in mezzotint in 1678.

In other texts a different date of birth is given, for example according to van der Aa, Almeloveen would have been born around 1614, perhaps in Utrecht or Gouda. It should be noted that this author mentions Mijdrecht as the birthplace of Theodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen, a character always mentioned on p. 58, and indicated as his date of birth on 27 July 1657, it is also reported that he was the son of Johannes van Almeloveen, preacher in the same place. Hobbes also reports 1614 as his birth year, citing this artist as a painter, but mainly known as an engraver.

37 engravings of this author have come down to us , mostly landscapes, some on their own design. 20 of these landscapes were made from drawings or works by Herman Saftleven II: 12 are reproductions of Dutch villages, others represent the Four Seasons .

From an annotation on one of these landscapes we know that van Almeloveen was working in Frankfurt / Oder on 8 August 1680, but for most of the time between 1678 and 1683 he probably lived in Utrecht, where he performed his last engraving known, forming part of a series of 6 landscapes.

According to Ottley, this artist succeeded, above all in the engravings by Saftleven, in making the style of the master whose work he had remade, but, although a good engraver, he was inferior in the drawing.

For Nieuwenhuis, this artist deserves just like Jan van Aken, perhaps overestimated, and his best recordings are those made from works by Saftleven .

Engravings
Landscape with a river and a city on a plateau, Fine Art Museum, San Francisco
The Four Seasons, set of 4 plates, from Herman Saftleven II, 8 x 8 cm
The Four Seasons, set of 4 plates, 11.3 x 11.3 cm, signed HS Inven. et J. Almeloveen fec.
View of the Rhine, 15.6 x 15.8 cm
Portrait of Pope Clement X and Gisbertus Voetius, signed II Almeloveen Inv. Et fec.
Set of 6 landscapes, from his drawings, signed Joan. ab Almeloveen Inv. et fec.
Set of 10 landscapes and views of rivers, from his drawings, signed Joan. ab Almeloveen Inv. et fec.
Set of 12 views of Dutch villages, by Herman Saftleven II, signed HS Inv. Et I. Almeloveen fec.

Source from Wikipedia