Born in 1662 as the second son in an artistic family, Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662-1749) was the younger brother of the artist Pieter van Bloemen (1657-1720, his Bentvueghel nickname Standaart) and the older brother of Norbert van Bloemen (1670-1746, his Bentvueghel nickname Cephalus), who became an artist as well.
Around 1682 Jan Frans set out for his Southern sojourn, traveling through Paris and Lyon, where he joined his older brother Pieter and became acquainted to Adriaen van der Cabel (1630/31-1705) who possibly influenced him. After a short stay of four months in Turin, the brothers continued their travels to Rome where they arrived in 1688. In 1693 Jan Frans married Mattia Rosa Barosini (1671-before 1748) and the couple was blessed with five children. Jan Frans would spend his further life in Rome until his death in 1749, whereas Pieter returned to Antwerp in 1692/93. L'Orrizonte was the Bentvueghel nickname of Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662-1749), which he was given cause of the atmospheric horizons with bright colours in his paintings.
Whereas the painted oeuvre of Jan Frans is highly influenced by Gaspard Dughet (1613-1675), a close follower of his brother in law Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), his drawings show the influences of Jan Asselijn (1610-1652), Thomas Wijck (1616-1677), Willem Romeyn (1624-1695) and Willem Schellinks (1623-1678). For Conte Carlo Bonelli (1612-1676) he drew the Roman Ruins seen from his Casino. Although paintings by Jan Frans van Bloemen can be found on the market frequently, his autograph drawings are of great scarcity. Finally he also produced a series of six etchings, although the authorship of the series remains slightly doubtful.
This recently discovered drawing by Jan Frans van Bloemen shows the inside of the overgrown ruins of the Colosseum amist of a sundrenched day, probably late in the morning or early in the afternoon regarding the position of the sun and it's angle of the sunlight. Apparently it is a hot day in Rome and the draughtsman has found a shady place inside the ruins where he sat down to record the sultry atmosphere. With several bold and swifty applied painterly brush strokes he has caught the sweltering air accumulating on the ceiling of the arch. The carefully chosen point of view with bowery low vegetation as a repoussoir on the left together with the free perspective, the see through at the end of the stairs and the dilapidated ceiling with overgrown vegetation, creates a most challenging atmospheric drawing which ranks among the best of Jan Frans van Bloemen's drawn oeuvre.
Jan Frans painted the Colosseum also in one of his very few signed and dated paintings, most probably inspired by Jacob de Heusch (1656-1701).[2]
A closely related study of the Walls of the Colosseum with the idiosyncratic swift horizontal hatches similar to our significantly larger sheet was sold in the rooms of Sotheby's, New York in 2007.[3]
[1] An Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome 1675-1725.
Van Gorcum & Comp. B.V., Assen, 1973. p.27-38.
[2] Jan Frans van Bloemen, Landscape with the slopes of the Palatine, Arch of Constantine and Colosseum (1741). Oil on canvas, 118,5 x 165,3 cm. Galleria Pallavicini, Rome. cat. 1959, nr. 50.
[3] Jan Frans van Bloemen, Study of the Walls of the Colosseum in Rome.
Pen and grey ink, brush and grey ink,brown and grey wash, 331 x 283 mm.
Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2007. Lot. 58
