UYL, Jan Jansz. den, the Elder
Dutch painter. He specialized in still-lifes, particularly in banquet pieces, but he also painted landscapes and animal paintings.
His contemporary artists of the monochrome still-life, the Haarlem painters Pieter Claesz and Willem Heda, are mainly more well-known because they had a greater production during a longer period of life. However, he was well known in his time, and Peter Paul Rubens owned three of his paintings.
The work of Den Uyl may be distinguished by its mystic luminosity, in which he antedates the related lighting in Rembrandt’s and Willem Kalf’s works.
The Dutch word uil means “owl”, and den Uyl always included the signature motif of an owl in his paintings, often more than once in a single picture. Sometimes the motif is obvious and sometimes it is more covert.
He was the teacher of Jan Jansz. Treck whose sister he married in 1619. The painter and printmaker Jan Jansz. den Uyl the Younger (c. 1621-after 1669) was his son and pupil.
