Jan Wyck - Early Life

Early Life

Jan Wyck was born on 29 October 1652, in Haarlem, then part of the Dutch Republic. The son of Thomas Wyck (1616-1677), also a Dutch painter, it is assumed that his father taught him to paint, although little is actually known of his early life. His father had spent much of the 1630s in Rome, refining an Italianate style, which can be seen in the works of both father and son. It appears likely that at a fairly young age he and his father moved to England during the reign of Charles II of England, possibly in 1664. It also seems likely that they were in London at the time of the Great Fire of London, as his father created one of the last sketches of Old St Paul's Cathedral in its ruined state before it was knocked down to create the new St Paul's Cathedral, as well as night scenes of the fire itself.

The first documented reference to Jan Wyck comes from the sessions of the London court of the Painter-Stainers' Company where, on 17 June 1674, he is recorded as promising to pay both his own and his father's quarterly fees. At this hearing he also promised to soon deliver his 'proofe piece'. However his father had returned to Haarlem within a year, and died less than two and a half years later on 19 August 1677.

Although the details of his first marriage are unknown, Jan Wyck was married for a second time on 22 November 1676 with his certificate stating: 'Jan Wick of St Paul's Covent Garden, gent., widower, about 31 ...'. The reference to him being a widower at the age of 24 indicates he was first married at a young age. His second wife was a 19 year old English woman called Anne Skinner of St Martin-in-the-fields, and she bore him four children between 1678 and 1683, but none of them survived their early childhood.

Following the death of Anne in 1687, he remarried for the third time to a Dutch woman by the name of Elizabeth Holomberg in 1688. They moved into a new home in Mortlake, and between 1689 and 1693 they had two sons (John, b.1689 and William, b.1691) and a daughter (Elizabeth, b. 1693) together. His wife Elizabeth died giving birth to their daughter.