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Jurgen
Ovens

Germany • 1623−1678

Owens (Ovens) Jürgen

(1623-1678)

German portrait painter and schedule.

Jürgen Ovens (Jurgen Ovens)

1623 Tonning, Schleswig-Holstein — December 9, 1678 Friedrichstadt

German painter and printmaker, who worked for a long time in the Netherlands.

According to legend, he was a pupil of Rembrandt, and this (incorrect) opinion brought Owens during the life of much glory. It is possible that ovens was trained in Holland, but most likely in Flanders, because he lived in Antwerp from 1635 and was among the disciples of Jan Lievens.

The earliest dated work Ovens - portrait of a man (1642; Chicago), which was inspired by the works of van Dyck, and Rembrandt is not. The influence of Flemish painting is clearly present in all the works Owens, from his official state portraits to his religious paintings with the Virgin Mary and large altarpieces.

Relatively few works are known from his first Dutch period, but they confirm the fact that he must have quickly made a name for himself in Holland as a painter - portraitist.

In "Portrait of a woman in blue" (1649, Schleswig-Holstein) the wife of the Amsterdam merchant is portrayed with her child as the virgin Mary in the Flemish style.

On 21 September 1652, the painter married Maria Martens in Tonning and afterwards moved to Friedrichstadt, also in Schleswig-Holstein, as court painter to Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp, who ruled in 1616-59. For him he painted family portraits (not preserved) in 1651, when he lived in Amsterdam.

In 1652 ovens painted a group portrait on the canvas is almost 5 m. width - "Princess Hedvig Eleonora von Gottorp with his family."

Ovens was present in Sweden at the wedding of Princess Eleanor to the king of Sweden Carl X Gustav of Sweden on 24 October 1654, and this event is reflected in the three paintings in the museums of Stockholm and Drottningholm.

In "self-Portrait of the artist painting his wife" (Saint Petersburg, Hermitage), which also dates from this period, the painter looks at the viewer with a confident expression.

Maria ovens was also the model for "Portrait of a woman in a fancy dress" (1655, Schleswig-Holstein), after which ovens made an etching in 1675.

"Self-portrait" describes Owens as a portraitist, but is able to give accurate and realistic live performance. Forms of realism were found a second line-up change, and artists of the Dutch school. The range of brown tones, the composition and nature of the lighting all indicate the hand of a pupil and follower of Rembrandt. Only by recognizing the historical inevitability of foreign influences on the art of Germany of the seventeenth century, it is possible to properly understand and appreciate the work of this German painter who spent many years in Holland. Owens close disciples of Rembrandt - Ill and Levens, with whom he worked for the Amsterdam town hall.

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