Jan Baptist Bonnecroy (1618 – after 1676)

• Was a Flemish painter and engraver.
• Jan Baptist Bonnecroy was born in Antwerp.

• He studied art from an early age but renounced an artistic career at the age of 20 to enter a Franciscans monastery in 1638.

• He renounced his religious calling, however, and was married by the year 1642. 

• After he had become an orphan he was placed under guardianship.

• He entered into a contract of apprenticeship and was in 1644 enrolled as a pupil of Lucas van Uden.

• The next year he passed his master test and was registered as a painter in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. 

• He was still registered at the Antwerp Guild in 1665.

• He died after 1676 possibly in Brussels since a city view of Brussels by his hand shows Brussels in that year.

• Bonnecroy is best known for his large-scale panoramic views of cities.

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