Jacob Huysmans (1630-1696)

• Was a Flemish painter.
• After training in his native Antwerp, immigrated to England before the Restoration in 1660. 
• A number of his family members also became artists.
• He was the uncle of Cornelis and Jan Baptist Huysmans.
• Huysmans was a pupil of the history painters Gillis Backereel and Frans Wouters.
• He is first recorded in England in 1662.
• Here he first started out as a painter of pastiches.
• He was able to establish himself as a portrait painter at the court of Charles II.
• As a Roman Catholic he was in particular favoured by the Queen Catharine of Braganza, a Catholic from Portugal.
• The famous diarist Samuel Pepys visited the workshop of Huysman in Westminster on 26 August 1664 and described Huysmans as a 'picture-drawer ... which is said to exceed Lilly (Lely).
• While he spent the majority of his career in London, Huysmans resided for a while in Chichester in Sussex following the Great Fire of London.
• Huysmans died in Jermyn Street, London.
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