Jan van den Hecke

Jan van den Hecke or Jan van den Hecke I or Jan van den Hecke the Elder (1620–1684) was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman, printmaker and engraver mainly known for his still lifes, landscapes and battle scenes.

He was born in Kwaremont near Ronse, about 10 km from Oudenaarde, East Flanders. He was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an apprentice in 1636. He was a pupil of Abraham Hack, who also taught his contemporary, the flower painter Hieronymus Galle. He became a master in the Guild in the year 1641-1642.

He travelled to Italy where he resided in Rome but the exact dates of his trip are unclear. Alternative dates proposed are from 1644 to 1659 and 1653 to 1658. He may also have travelled in France during the 1650s.

Jan van den Hecke spent time in Brussels in the mid 1650s. During his stay in Brussels in the mid 1650s he may have worked for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the Austrian governor of the Spanish Netherlands. who resided in Brussels and was an avid art collector. A number of van Hecke's still life paintings found their way into the Archduke's collection and from there into the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Archduke Leopold Wilhem must have particularly liked his flower pieces as all of van den Hecke's paintings which he collected were pictures of flowers in vases and baskets and garland paintings. Van Hecke returned to Antwerp around 1657.

In 1660 he married Maria Adriana Heyens with whom he had three children. His son, known as Jan van den Hecke II, was born in 1661 and became a popular painter of flowers as well as other types of still life.

His two known pupils were Peeter vander Elstraeten (1657–60) and Peeter de Clerc (1672–73).

He died in Antwerp in 1684.

Jan van den Hecke was a versatile artist working in many genres and techniques. He made still lifes, landscapes, genre scenes, military scenes and allegorical paintings.

He was a gifted flower painter. As in the work of other Antwerp painters of his generation such as Jan Brueghel the Younger and Philips de Marlier, some of the flower paintings of van den Hecke were dedicated to the presentation of a single variety of flowers: tulips and wallflowers. Some of his flower still lifes, such as the Flowers in a Vase with the Siege of Gravelingen (Kunsthistorisches Museum), include a view onto a landscape or a battle scene, two genres in which van Hecke was skilled.

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