About Hans Jordaens III 
 

Flemish painter 

Birthplace unknown (probably Antwerp) circa 1595 - 1643 Antwerp. 
 

He was nicknamed "Lange Jan", "Tall Jan".

Painter of history scenes, of genre scenes and of representations of collector’s galleries.

 

Pupil of his father, Hans Jordaens II (Antwerp 1581 - Antwerp 1635). 

He became a master in the Antwerp Painters’ Guild of Saint Luke around 1619/1620.

On 26 November 1617 Hans III married Maria van Dijck, by whom he had five children. 

He appears to have been a fairly successful painter: although his father is said to have been a poor man, Hans III was living in a large house in 1624. 

Jordaens worked not only as an individual painter, he was also active as a staffage painter: he painted figures in other specialists’ paintings, for example in the landscapes of Joos de Momper II, in the perspective views (architectural scenes) of Paul Vredeman de Vries and probably also in the landscapes of Alexander Keirincx.

After the sudden death of the landscape painter Abraham Govaerts in September 1626 he was one of the painters responsible for finishing some of the latter’s works.

Arnold Houbraken, himself a painter, published between 1718 and 1721 3 volumes of his reference work describing the lives of a large number of the painters of the previous centuries, called "De Grote Schouburgh der Nederlandsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen". In his entry upon “Hans Jordaans” he confuses three painters, Hans I, III and IV.

 

 

The backside of 17th century paintings from Antwerp on oak panels show the quality control marks of the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp.

 

- The first mark refers to the panel maker. Here the clover stands for 

- Michiel Claessens, a well-known Antwerp panel maker, active between 1590 and 1637.

 

- The second mark, the two stylized hands, testify the oak panel is of good quality to be the support for a painting. 

These hands stand for an old myth: a giant called Druoon Antigoon lived near a curve in the river Scheldt. He would get a tribute from every passing ship. If not he used to cut the hand of the shipper. This situation came to an end when the Roman soldier Silvius Brabo killed the giant and threw his hand in the river.

It was thought wrongly that the name “Antwerpen” came from this “hand werpen”, which means “to throw the hand”.

 

- The third mark represents the castle of Antwerp, a building with on each side a tower. This mark was made after a positive evaluation of the finished painting.

 

- As to the “A”, it stands for Antwerp.