Jacob Huysmans

Jacob Huysmans (c.1633–1696) was a Flemish portrait painter. He moved to England during the reign of Charles II where he became one of the fashionable painters of the court. His chief portraits are those of Izaak Walton and Catherine of Braganza, Charles II's wife (both displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, London).

He was born into a family of artists in Antwerp. He was the uncle of Jan-Baptiste and Cornelis Huysmans. He learned to paint from Gilles Backereel and Frans Wouters and moved to England, where he later influenced David des Granges (1611–1675). His first works were pastiches of work from Anthony van Dyck. As a Roman Catholic he was favoured by Catharine of Braganza. When Samuel Pepys visited his workshop in Westminster on 26 August 1664, he described him as a 'picture-drawer ... which is said to exceed Lilly (Lely). Huysmans's most important portrait of Catharine of Braganza, Queen Catharine as a Shepherdess (c. 1664; Brit. Royal Col.), was one of the pictures Pepys saw on that occasion. Painting his subjects as sheperdesses with clothing embellished with embroidery and jewellery were typical of his style.

Huysmans died in Jermyn Street, London, in 1696, and was buried in St. James's Church in Piccadilly.

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