John Weesop

John Weesop or Jan Weesop (name variations: 'Wessopp', 'Wisop', 'Wesep' and 'Wesop') (fl 1640–1653) was a portrait painter presumed to be of Flemish descent who is now only known for his works produced in the 1640s in England. His English patrons were predominantly prominent members of the royalist aristocracy.

Very little is known about Weesop’s life and career. Until recent research into the artist, the only information known about him were the remarks of the painter William Sykes, recorded by the English engraver and antiquary George Vertue who wrote that:

George Vertue also recorded in a notebook that the painter William Sykes had informed him that a painter called 'Wesop' or 'Weesep' had come to England in 1641 'in the time of Vandyke' and had remained until 1649 and that his pictures 'pass for Vandyke' ('Vertue Note Books', I, Walpole Society, XVIII, 1929-30, p. 49).

Research by British art historian Sir Oliver Millar has provided a better understanding of the artist. Sir Oliver showed that John Weesop was still living, and presumably working, in London in 1653 and that a reference to a Mrs Weesop later in that year suggests that the painter likely died later that year.

From Vertue’s remarks about Weesop and his patrons it has been concluded that he was sympathetic to the royalist cause. The portraits attributable to Weesop are all of patrons who were staunch royalists. These include figures such as Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart and later Duchess of Lauderdale, Marmaduke D'Arcy and the members or allies of the Villiers family. In a 1730 list of three pictures a double portrait of 'Lord Grandison & Mr. Villiers’ is given to Weesop. These brothers were the sons of Sir Edward Villiers, the half-brother of the Duke of Buckingham. Another painting recorded in 1730 was of Anne Villiers, Countess of Sussex, daughter of Buckingham's younger brother, the Earl of Anglesey.

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