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Joseph Van Aken
Josef van Aken, known in England as Joseph van Aken and Joseph Van Aken of Heacken (c. 1699, Antwerp – 4 July 1749 London) was a Flemish genre, portrait and drapery painter who spent most of his career in England. Initially successful in England with his fashionable conversation pieces and other genre scenes, he gradually specialised as a drapery painter. Drapery painters were specialist painters who completed the dress, costumes and other accessories worn by the subjects of portrait paintings. They worked for portrait painters with a large clientele. He was recognised as one of the foremost drapery painters active in mid-18th-century England and was employed in that capacity by many leading and lesser known portrait painters of his time.
Very little is known about the early life of the artist. He is believed to have been born in Antwerp around 1699. There is no record of his training in Antwerp and he was never registered as a pupil or master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
He arrived in London from Antwerp in around 1720, accompanied by his brother Alexander (1701–57), and possibly also an older brother called Arnoldus (d.1735/6). He initially painted genre scenes and conversation pieces in the Flemish tradition. He used local English scenery in his genre works. He also painted portrait paintings. His works as an independent artist include a view of Covent Garden Market, of which he made at least three versions. He largely abandoned genre painting as an independent artist and became a specialist drapery painter in the mid-1730s.
Van Aken painted drapery for most of the leading artists in London as well as minor artists, also outside of London. Artists by whom he was engaged as drapery painter include Allan Ramsay, Thomas Hudson, Joseph Highmore, Thomas Bardwell and George Knapton. As he was working for many of the leading portrait painters in England, Horace Walpole commented "As in England almost everybody's picture is painted, so almost every painter's work is painted by Vanaken". As he was specialised in painting draperies for portrait painting, he was sometimes called 'the Tailor from Aken' (Aken being the Dutch translation for the German town Aachen).
His reputation was so great and the competition to ensure his services so fierce that when in 1745 the portrait painter John Robinson from Bath sought to engage van Aken as a drapery painter, van Aken's other employers threatened to cease hiring him if he agreed to work for Robinson. The same scenario played out when the portrait painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo made him a similar offer.
Van Aken was a member of the second St. Martin's Lane Academy, an association of artists that gathered in the Slaughter's Coffee House in London between 1635 and 1666. Many artists were members including Hogarth, Francis Hayman and Thomas Hudson. The artists discussed ideas about art in their gatherings. In the 1730s the young John Wollaston likely worked in the workshop of van Aken. In 1748 he travelled to Paris with Hogarth and Francis Hayman, and then from there by himself to the Habsburg Netherlands.
His workshop was located in King Street, Seven Dials. He lived in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, where he died in 1749. According to George Vertue he was about fifty years old at the time of his death and had spent more than 30 years in England. Ramsay and Hudson were joint executors of van Aken's will. His younger brother, Alexander van Aken was also a drapery painter and was employed by Hudson after Joseph's death. Another brother, Arnoldus, was also a painter known for small conversation pieces and a series of paintings of fish which were later engraved and published under the title The Wonders of the Deep (1736).
Van Aken started out as a painter of genre scenes and conversation pieces and to a lesser extent, portraits. He later became almost full time employed by portrait painters in England as a drapery painter and only occasionally still produced genre works for his own account.
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Joseph Van Aken
Josef van Aken, known in England as Joseph van Aken and Joseph Van Aken of Heacken (c. 1699, Antwerp – 4 July 1749 London) was a Flemish genre, portrait and drapery painter who spent most of his career in England. Initially successful in England with his fashionable conversation pieces and other genre scenes, he gradually specialised as a drapery painter. Drapery painters were specialist painters who completed the dress, costumes and other accessories worn by the subjects of portrait paintings. They worked for portrait painters with a large clientele. He was recognised as one of the foremost drapery painters active in mid-18th-century England and was employed in that capacity by many leading and lesser known portrait painters of his time.
Very little is known about the early life of the artist. He is believed to have been born in Antwerp around 1699. There is no record of his training in Antwerp and he was never registered as a pupil or master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
He arrived in London from Antwerp in around 1720, accompanied by his brother Alexander (1701–57), and possibly also an older brother called Arnoldus (d.1735/6). He initially painted genre scenes and conversation pieces in the Flemish tradition. He used local English scenery in his genre works. He also painted portrait paintings. His works as an independent artist include a view of Covent Garden Market, of which he made at least three versions. He largely abandoned genre painting as an independent artist and became a specialist drapery painter in the mid-1730s.
Van Aken painted drapery for most of the leading artists in London as well as minor artists, also outside of London. Artists by whom he was engaged as drapery painter include Allan Ramsay, Thomas Hudson, Joseph Highmore, Thomas Bardwell and George Knapton. As he was working for many of the leading portrait painters in England, Horace Walpole commented "As in England almost everybody's picture is painted, so almost every painter's work is painted by Vanaken". As he was specialised in painting draperies for portrait painting, he was sometimes called 'the Tailor from Aken' (Aken being the Dutch translation for the German town Aachen).
His reputation was so great and the competition to ensure his services so fierce that when in 1745 the portrait painter John Robinson from Bath sought to engage van Aken as a drapery painter, van Aken's other employers threatened to cease hiring him if he agreed to work for Robinson. The same scenario played out when the portrait painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo made him a similar offer.
Van Aken was a member of the second St. Martin's Lane Academy, an association of artists that gathered in the Slaughter's Coffee House in London between 1635 and 1666. Many artists were members including Hogarth, Francis Hayman and Thomas Hudson. The artists discussed ideas about art in their gatherings. In the 1730s the young John Wollaston likely worked in the workshop of van Aken. In 1748 he travelled to Paris with Hogarth and Francis Hayman, and then from there by himself to the Habsburg Netherlands.
His workshop was located in King Street, Seven Dials. He lived in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, where he died in 1749. According to George Vertue he was about fifty years old at the time of his death and had spent more than 30 years in England. Ramsay and Hudson were joint executors of van Aken's will. His younger brother, Alexander van Aken was also a drapery painter and was employed by Hudson after Joseph's death. Another brother, Arnoldus, was also a painter known for small conversation pieces and a series of paintings of fish which were later engraved and published under the title The Wonders of the Deep (1736).
Van Aken started out as a painter of genre scenes and conversation pieces and to a lesser extent, portraits. He later became almost full time employed by portrait painters in England as a drapery painter and only occasionally still produced genre works for his own account.