Juan van der Hamen y León

Spanish, 1596–1631

Birth placeMadrid, Spain

Death placeMadrid, Spain

BiographySpanish painter and courtier. He served at the courts of Philip III and Philip IV and can be credited more than anyone else with establishing the popularity of the new genre of still-life in Madrid in the 1620s. He was the son of a Flemish courtier, who had moved to Madrid from Brussels before 1586, and a half-Flemish mother of noble Toledan ancestry. Van der Hamen and his two brothers (both of whom were writers) emphasized their Spanish roots by using all or part of their maternal grandmother’s family name, Gómez de León. The artist inherited his father’s honorary positions at court and also served as unsalaried Pintor del Rey. According to 18th-century sources, the artist’s father had also been a painter, but there is no evidence for this. Van der Hamen’s artistic activity in the service of the crown is first recorded on 10 September 1619, when he was paid for painting a still-life for the country palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. He painted religious history paintings, allegories, landscapes, low-life subjects, portraits and still-lifes but the last two categories brought him the greatest fame.

Person TypePerson