Provenance
P. & D. Colnaghi, Ltd., London;
Private Collection, New York
Jan Baptist Weenix was born in Amsterdam in 1621, the son of the architect
Johannes Weenix and Grietgen Heeremans. His sister Lijsbeth married the
painter Barent Micker (1615-1687), whose brother Jan Micker (1598/99-1664)
was Weenix’s first teacher. He subsequently studied with the Utrecht painter
Abraham Bloemaert and completed his training in the Amsterdam studio of
Claes Moeyaert. In 1639, Weenix married Josina de Hondecoutre, daughter of
the landscape painter Gijsbert de Hondecoutre (1604-1653). On October 30,
1642, he drafted his will as he was planning to travel to Italy “to experiment
with his art.” He lived in Italy from 1643 until 1647. In Rome, Weenix joined
the Netherlandish artists’ society, the Bentvueghels, where he received his
nickname “Ratel” (rattle) because of a speech defect. About 1645 the artist
probably entered the service of Cardinal Camillo Pamphili. Weenix was in
Amsterdam by June 1647, however by 1649 he had settled in Utrecht where,
together with Jan Both, he was elected an officer of the local painters’ guild. In
1657, Weenix moved to the Huis ter Mey, where he died in 1660 or 1661, at the
age of thirty-nine. Weenix had two sons, one of whom, Jan, became a wellknown
still-life painter.
Along with Claes Berchem and Jan Both, Weenix was a leader of the second
generation of the seventeenth century Dutch Italianate painters. He painted and
drew history subjects, views of Mediterranean seaports, landscapes, genre
scenes, still lifes with dead game and some portraits, although these are quite
rare. After his return from Italy he always signed his name, as in the present
painting, Gio[vanni] Batt[ist]a Weenix , whereas earlier he had written it
J[ohannes] Weenincx or Weenincks . The addition of Battista might have been a
reference to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili, who became Pope Innocent X
in 1644, from whom he received at least one commission.