 |
| Jan Asselijn A coastal ruin in Italy ca. 1640-52 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Jan Asselijn Italian coast scene before 1657 oil on copper Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
 |
| Jan Asselijn Italianate landscape with drovers, sheep and cattle beside ruins 1647 oil on panel Harvard Art Museums |
 |
| Jan Asselijn Muleteers beside an Italian ruin ca. 1650 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Jan Asselijn The aqueduct at Frascati ca. 1635-42 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
"Jan Asselijn (ca. 1610-1652) was probably a pupil of the painter and etcher Jan Martsen the Younger in Amsterdam, and he began his career emulating his teacher as a painter of cavalry battles. His earliest signed and dated works were made in 1634 and 1635. According to Joachim von Sandrart, Asselijn went via France to Rome, "where he applied himself in the fine manner of the artistic Van Laer, called Bamboots, and he brought his art to a high standard; he also left many such fine landscapes, small scenes and animals behind in Rome, Venice and Lyon." Filippo Baldinucci mentions Asselijn in his biography of the French artist Jacques Courtois, also known as Il Borgognone, ". . .he arrived in Florence, where he met Jan Asselijn, called Little Crab, a Dutchman, a superb painter of capricci and battles . . ." Asselijn had a deformed hand and because of it was nicknamed 'Crabbetje'."
"We know of no other sources of information about Asselijn's stay in Italy. He must have left the Netherlands after November 1635, the last year in which there are dated paintings by him. On 4 November of that year he attended his nephew's baptism. As Sandrart rightly observes, in Rome Asselijn was influenced by the work of Pieter van Laer, which means that he probably arrived in Italy before Van Laer's departure for the Netherlands in 1638-39. He will also have had contact with Andries and Jan Both, since the brothers did not leave Rome for Venice until 1641-42. Sandrart tells us that Asselijn also went to Venice. We do not know whether he visited Florence on his way there or back, nor how long he stayed there. According to Houbraken, in 1644-45, on his return journey, he married Antoinette Huart in Lyon, where he must have stayed for some time. Asselijn then worked in Paris where, like Herman van Swanevelt and several other artists, he produced paintings for the Hôtel Lambert."
"One important project that he undertook during his stay in Paris was the preparatory drawings of Roman views for three series of prints by Gabriel Perelle in 1644-45. In company with the painter Nicolaes de Helt Stocade, who had married Antoinette Huart's sister in Lyon, Asselijn left Paris just before Lambert Doomer and Willem Schellinks arrived there on 10 August 1646. Schellinks wrote in his diary that he had unfortunately not found his compatriots in Paris because 'they and their wives and children' had left shortly before. Asselijn's eldest daughter, Catarina, was probably born in Lyon, because she was seven years old when his Will was drawn up in 1652. In April 1647 Asselijn is referred to in a deed in Amsterdam. Rembrandt etched his portrait in that year. He was buried in Amsterdam on 3 October 1652."
– Peter Schatborn, from the catalogue of a 2001 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, published in English as Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch artists in Italy, translated by Lynne Richards
 |
| Jan Asselijn Drovers with cattle under an arch of the Colosseum, Rome ca. 1640-52 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| attributed to Jan Asselijn Ruins of the Colosseum, Rome ca. 1635-42 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
 |
| attributed to Jan Asselijn Study of the Colosseum, Rome ca. 1635-42 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Jan Asselijn Corner of the ruins of the Colosseum, Rome ca. 1635-42 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Jan Asselijn Ruin of the Colosseum, Rome ca. 1635-42 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
 |
| Jan Asselijn View of the Colosseum ca. 1635-42 drawing Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels |
 |
| Jan Asselijn The Tiber River with the Ponte Molle at sunset ca. 1650 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
 |
| Jan Asselijn Ponte Molle near Rome ca. 1635-42 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Jan Asselijn View of the Ponte Molle near Rome, with watermills ca. 1635-42 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
 |
| Jan Asselijn View of the Ponte Molle, Rome before 1652 oil on panel Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco |