Biography

Dutch painter, part of a family of artists. 'Van Haarlem' is traditionally added to the surname to distinguish the family members from Johannes Vermeer of Delft.

For ten years from 1638, Jan Vermeer van Haarlem the Elder (Jan Vermeer van Haarlem II) was a pupil of Jacob (Willemsz.) de Wet, to whose Rembrandtesque manner he was evidently impermeable. He entered the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1654, the year of his marriage, and remained in Haarlem for the rest of his life.

His early influences were fellow Haarlem landscape painters, especially Jacob van Ruisdael, and he continued to paint heavily wooded landscapes recalling the work of such followers of Ruisdael as Adriaen Verboom (1628-70) and Jan van Kessel throughout his career. His late work, possibly influenced by Philips Koninck, is more panoramic: it includes such landscapes as Dunes near Haarlem (Paris, Louvre) and extensive views inland from the coastal dunes, which exploit the natural advantage of a high viewpoint. These paintings are predominantly yellow and dark green in tone, with strong shadows.

His son Jan Vermeer van Haarlem the Younger (Jan Vermeer van Haarlem III) continued the subject matter and style of the father.