Jean Baptiste Bonnecroy

Place: Antwerp

Born: 1618

Death: 1676

Biography:

Jan Baptist Bonnecroy was a Flemish painter and engraver known for his large panoramic views of cities and marine paintings. He was born on February 12, 1618, in Antwerp to Willem Bonnecroy, a textile merchant, and Antonetta de la Forterie. At a young age, he studied art but renounced an artistic career at the age of 20 to enter a Franciscan monastery in 1638. He later abandoned his religious vocation and married in 1642. After becoming an orphan, he was placed under guardianship, with one of his guardians being the famous landscape painter Lucas van Uden. He concluded an apprenticeship contract and was registered as a student of Lucas van Uden in 1644. The following year, he passed his master's exam and was registered as a painter in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. In 1658, he bought a house in Antwerp, which he sold in 1662. He was still registered with the Antwerp guild in 1665 but after that, there is no further trace of him in this city. It is likely that he worked in Amsterdam and Brussels as he painted views of these two cities. He died after 1676, probably in Brussels, as a view of the city from his hand shows Brussels that year.