Jacob Jacobs

Jacobus Albertus Michael Jacobs was a landscape and seascape painter, originally from Belgium. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and in Louvein where he will get inspired by the works of Ludolf Bakhuizen and Adriaen van de Velde towards maritime paintings.

His first exhibition took place at the Brussels Salon in 1833. From there on, he will embark on various trips through the North Sea and the Nertherlands that will shape his taste and skills for maritime paintings. A northern inspiration with relatively cold and dark colours.

But in 1838, he opted for a longer sea voyage through the Mediterranean. Traveling for more than 2 years, his voyage will bring him along the coasts of Portugal, Spain, but also North African countries like Morocco and Algeria. He will then reach Constantinople where he will make a halt for 4 months, and eventually get back on the a boat to reach Cairo, from where he will sail back up the Nile.

All his wanderings provided him with precious moments for drawing and sketching, all of which he will collect in a voluminous travel journal. All the drawings would serve as inspiration for the rest of his life and move his painting towards oriental scenes, with more golden and warmer colors.

Jacobs Jacob was a very prolific painter and he should be much recognized for the many Orientalist depictions he brought back to Belgium.

Adolphe Siret, at the Antwerp exhibition of 1867, about Jacob Jacobs' work Vous rendez justice, et avec raison, à Bossuet et à Van Moer — mais vous semblez n'avoir pas vu les toiles magistrales de Jacob Jacobs, qui, tour à tour, peint avec du feu le ciel embrasé de l'Égypte où il est allé s'inspirer — et avec un frisson qui gagne le spectateur les cataractes bondissantes des contrées glaciales du nord dont il a vu et compris la mâle poésie (…) »