WEENIX, JAN BAPTIST (1621-1660), Dutch painter, the son of an architect, was born in Amsterdam, and studied first under Jan Micker, then at Utrecht under A. Bloemaert, and at Amsterdam under Moijaert, and finally, between 1643 and in Rome. In that city he acquired a great name and worked for Pope Innocent and Cardinal Pamphili. He returned to Hol land in 1649, in which year he became master of the gild of St. Luke at Utrecht, where he died in 166o. He was a very productive and versatile painter, his favourite subjects being landscapes with ruins and large figures, seaports, and, later in life, large still-life pictures. His son Jan, Berchem, and Hondecoeter were his His son, JAN WEENIX (16401719), was born at Amsterdam and was a member of the Utrecht gild of painters in 1664 and 1668. His fame is chiefly due to his paintings of game and of hunting scenes, and many of the pictures of this genre, formerly ascribed to the elder Weenix, are now generally considered to be the works of his son, who even at the age of 20 rivalled, and subsequently surpassed, his father in breadth of handling and richness of colour. At Amsterdam he was frequently employed to
decorate private houses with wall-paintings on canvas; and be tween 1702 and 1712 he painted an important series of large hunting pictures for the Prince Palatine Johann Wilhelm's castle of Bensberg, near Cologne. Some of these pictures are now at Munich. He died at Amsterdam in 1719. Many of his best works are to be found in English private collections, though the National Gallery has but one example, a painting of dead game and a dog.