Lucas van Valckenborch I

Lucas van Valckenborch or Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder (Leuven, c. 1535 – Frankfurt am Main, 2 February 1597) was a Flemish painter, mainly known for his landscapes. He also made contributions to portrait painting, and allegorical and market scenes. Court painter to Archduke Matthias, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands in Brussels, he later migrated to Austria and then Germany where he joined members of his extended family of artists who had moved there for religious reasons.

Lucas van Valckenborch was born in Leuven in what would become one of the most prominent Flemish families of artists. Spanning three generations, 14 artists are recorded in the family of whom his older brother Marten the Elder and the sons of the latter, Frederik van Valckenborch and Gillis van Valckenborch, were the most important personalities.

On 26 August 1560 he is recorded as entering the painters' guild of Mechelen. Mechelen was known at the time as a center for oil and water-colours and especially landscape painting. The artistic milieu of Mechelen was decisive on the development of the artist. Lucas van Valckenborch learned in Mechelen the art of watercolour painting. Here he also got to know the prominent painters Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1528-1569) and Hans Bol (1534-1593), who both played an important role in the development of landscape painting in the Low Countries. The 17th-century biographer Karel van Mander reported that Lucas van Valckenborch learned to paint landscapes in Mechelen.

At the start of the iconoclastic fury of the Beeldenstorm in 1566 Lucas van Valckenborch left Antwerp with his brother Marten van Valckenborch, probably for religious reasons as they may have been protestant. A series of topographical views, including a 1567 painted view of Liège, prove that van Valckenborch travelled up the Meuse valley. This trip played an important role in his development as a landscape artist working directly from nature. In 1570 the artist was in Aachen, where he met up again with his brother Marten. Here, the two brothers were also joined for two years by Hans Vredeman de Vries, friend and fellow artist.

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