Jacob van Campen

Jacob van Campen is best known as an architect, but he began and continued as a painter. He brought Italian classical ideas to the Netherlands and turned them into a Dutch style of brick and stone, sober and balanced.

He was born in Haarlem in 1596, joined the painters’ guild there in 1614 and trained with Frans de Grebber. He probably spent several years in Italy, studying Palladio and classical buildings. Back home he designed the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Nieuwe Kerk in Haarlem and the Amsterdam Town Hall, now the Royal Palace, begun in 1648. As a painter he produced oil paintings and decorative schemes for interiors. He died in Amersfoort in 1657.

His paintings are rare, and they share the calm order of his buildings.