HUYSUM, Dutch family of artists

Caspar van Huysum (b 1648) was a painter and etcher in Leeuwarden. Caspar's younger brother Justus van Huysum I (1695-1716) studied with Nicolaes Berchem and painted many different subjects, such as portraits, marine scenes, landscapes, history and battle paintings, but was best known for his flower paintings. Of his ten children, the better-known Jan van Huysum was a flower painter, and three others were painters. Justus van Huysum II (1685-1707), who before his early death worked in his father's studio, was the only son not to specialize in flower painting but instead painted battle scenes and was also a competent draughtsman. Jacobus van Huysum (1688-1740) took over the management of his father's studio on the latter's death but in 1721 moved to England to work for Horace Walpole. The youngest brother, Michiel van Huysum (1704–60), probably studied with Jan. He painted arcadian landscapes and watercolours of fruit and flowers. There are also drawings recorded by a Maria van Huysum, a specialist in natural history subjects, who may have been Jan's daughter.