Vanuden, Lucas

, an eminent landscape-painter, was born at Antwerp in 1595, and learned the art of painting from his father; but he derived his chief excellence from a diligent observation of nature. Every hour that was not employed at his easel was spent abroad in the fields, where he noticed, with curious exactness, the variety of appearances perpetually occurring from the dawn to the evening over the face of nature. He watched the different effects of light on different objects, nor suffered any incident to escape his observation. His pictures are agreeably pencilled, and the distant objects in particular delicately touched. So perfectly was his style of colouring suited to that of Rubens, that this great painter often had recourse to him in finishing the back-grounds of his pictures, particularly when they consisted of landscape. Strange engraved two of these, in which the figures are by Rubens. There are also several etchings by Vanuden, in a spirited and masterly style, and among them a set of landscapes, small plates, length-ways, inscribed “Lucas Vanuden pinx. inv. et fee.” He died about 1663. He had a brother, Jacques Vanuden, also a painter, and in his manner, but far inferior to Lucas. ²

|