GOYEN, JAN JOSEPHSZOON VAN Dutch painter, was born at Leyden on Jan. 13, 1596, learned painting under several masters at Leyden and Haarlem, married in 1618 and settled at The Hague about 1631 where he rose to the presidency of his guild in 164o. He was one of the first to eman cipate himself from the traditions of minute painting of detail embodied in the works of Breughel and Savery. Though he pre served the dun scale of tone peculiar to those painters, he studied atmospheric effects in black and white with considerable skill. He had much influence on Dutch art. He formed Solomon Ruysdael and Pieter Potter, forced attention from Rembrandt, and bequeathed some of his precepts to Pieter de Molyn, Coelen bier, Saftleven, van der Kabel and Berghem. A friend of van Dyck and Bartholomew van der He1st, he sat to both these artists for his likeness. His daughter Margaret married Jan Steen, and he had steady patrons in the stadtholder Frederick Henry, and the chiefs of the municipality of The Hague. He died at The Hague on April 27, 1656.
Between 1610 and 1616 van Goyen wandered from one school to the other. He was apprenticed to Isaak Swanenburgh, de Man, Kiok and de Hoorn. In 1616 he joined Esaias van der Velde ; amongst his earlier pictures, some of 1621 (Berlin Museum) and 1623 (Brunswick Gallery) show the influence of Esaias very per ceptibly. The landscape is minute. Details of branching and foliage are given, and the landscape serves as a stage for genre scenes. After 1625 these peculiarities gradually disappear. At mospheric effect in landscapes of cool tints is the principal object which van Goyen holds in view. In buildings' and water, with shipping near the banks, he sometimes has the strength if not the colour of Albert Cuyp.
Van Goyen's work is seen to advantage at the Louvre, and in Berlin, Gotha, Vienna, Munich and Augsburg. The National Gallery in London has seven of his works. Though he visited France once or twice, van Goyen chiefly confined himself to the scenery of Holland. One of his largest pieces is a view of The Hague, executed in 1651 for the municipality, and now in the town collection of that city. Most of his panels represent reaches of the Rhine, the Waal and the Maese. But he sometimes sketched the downs of Scheveningen, or the sea at the mouth of the Rhine and Scheldt ; and he liked to depict the calm inshore, and rarely ventured upon seas stirred by more than a cooling breeze. He painted winter scenes, with ice and skaters and sledges. He pro duced little in partnership : we can only instance the "Watering place" in the gallery of Vienna, where the landscape is enlivened with horses and cattle by Philip Wouvermans. More than i,000 of van Goyen's pictures are catalogued by Hofstede de Groot. As an etcher, van Goyen has bequeathed to us two rare plates.