Jean de la Chambre

Portrait of Jean de la Chambre in 1638, holding his quill pen, by Frans Hals

Jean de la Chambre (1605, Haarlem – 1668, Haarlem), was a Dutch Golden Age engraver and calligrapher best known today for his portrait by Frans Hals, which is in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Biography

His parents were originally from Cambrai and travelled via Antwerp north to escape the troubles of the Fall of Antwerp, settling in Haarlem where Jean was later born. Like his contemporary Nicolaes Boddingius, he was probably a student of the Haarlem schoolmasters Peter Heyns, Jan van de Velde the Elder or Jacob van der Schuere. According to the RKD he was a school master in Haarlem and the father of Jean de la Chambre the younger.^[1] He is known for ornamental works.^[1] He had a brother Pieter or Pierre de la Chambre who was schoolmaster in Beverwijk.^[2]

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  Engraving of Hals' portrait of Jean de la Chambre, by Jonas Suyderhoef
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  Engraving of Jan de Bray's portrait of Jean de la Chambre at a later age, 1666, by Pieter Holsteyn II
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  Writing example dated 1649 by "the French schoolmaster in Haarlem" Jean de la Chambre
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  Engraving of Hals' portrait of Theodore Blevet, colleague of Pierre de la Chambre, by Theodor Matham

References

1. Jean de la Chambre (I) and Jean de la Chambre (II) in the RKD
2. De Navorscher: Een middel tot gedachtenwisseling en letterkundig verkeer, Volume 12, 1862, by P. Leendertz, Jacobus Anspach, and Jan Frederik van Somere, among others, page 255

• Exhibition from 30 August - 2 November 2014 in the Waalse Kerk, Haarlem over Jean de la Chambre and the French schools of Haarlem