, ca.1720 Jan was the son of the painter
Justus van Huysum and his first wife Margrietje Schouten and the older brother of
Jacob van Huysum and
Justus van Huysum the Younger. Jan’s much younger half-brother
Michiel van Huysum was also a flower painter. His grandfather
Jan van Huysum the Elder is said to have been "expeditious in decorating doorways, screens and vases." Van Huysum primarily lived and worked in the city of Amsterdam. Jan van Huysum and his wife Elisabeth Takens (1680–1751) had 12 children together but only three outlived their parents. Van Huysum was somewhat secretive about his process and worked separately from the rest of his family. Jan Van Huysum "holds the highest place among painters of fruit and flowers." His
flower-arrangement still lifes, in a style of the period collectively called
vanitas and/or
Pronkstilleven, are said to possess "an unerring elegance of composition, which enabled him to avoid the imbalance, the overcomposition, that others risked." He painted from "life," meaning fresh-cut flowers, assembling them over time into visual bouquets; sometimes this meant pieces took a year or more as he waited for certain blossoms to come back in season, such as a yellow rose he wanted for 1742 picture. The earlier Dutch artist
Jan David de Heem anticipated van Huysum; "if de Heem, by the harmony of his warm golden color, be called the
Titian of flowers and fruits, Jan van Huysum’s bright and sunny treatment entitles him to the name of the
Corregio of the same branch of art". == Influence ==