Jean de Reyn

He went to England as a young man in company with Antoon van Dyck, learning from the master and assisting with painting projects. After Van Dyck's death, de Reyn returned to Dunkirk where he had a successful but lower-profile career painting ecclesiastical commissions, and portraits of wealthy businessmen, celebrity pirates, and their wives. His skill level and style is considered to be close to that of van Dyck himself.

• Name — Jean de Reyn • Born — 1610? • Birthplace — Dunkirk, Spanish Netherlands • Died — 20 May 1678 • Place of death — Dunkirk, Kingdom of France • Occupation — Painter

• Illustration — Portrait made by de Reyn of lutenist and composer Jacques Gallot (1625–1695), held in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Born at Dunkirk about the year 1610, when he was young he went to Antwerp, where he became a student of van Dyck. Such was his progress under that master, that he was invited to accompany him to England, where he continued to assist him until van Dyck's death in 1641. He afterwards established himself in his native town, where he painted several admirable pictures for the churches, and was much employed as a portrait painter. The most notable of his works for the churches at Dunkirk was the Death of the Four Royal Martyrs (Les Quatre Martyrs), depicting four Christian martyrs executed early in the 4th century under the Roman emperor Diocletian. The work, now located at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dunkerque, was commissioned for the chapel of the guild of stonemasons within the Church of Saint-Éloi. The four martyrs were the traditional patron saints of stonemasons and the building trades. He also painted the baptism of Totila (Baptême de Totila) for the church of the English convent. The principal altarpiece in the Église Saint-Martin de Bergues (Église Saint-Martin de Bergues), at Bergues St. Vinox, near Dunkirk, is by this master: it depicts Herodias bringing the head of St. John to Herod (Héro-diade apportant la tête de saint Jean). There are many of his portraits in private collections, "which are little inferior to those of Van Dyck." De Reyn died at Dunkirk on 20 May 1678, and was buried in Saint-Éloi.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dunkerque holds at least a dozen of his paintings, including portraits of the Dunkerquois corsairs Mathieu Rombout and Jacques Colaert (1584–1637) (attributions to Reyn contested as of 1891). The Dunkirk city art museum also holds de Reyn's pictures of Alexander Leys, "syndic of the Corporation of Butchers" and his wife. As of 1880 his picture of the wedding of Thetis and Peleus (Noces de Thétis et Pelée) was in Madrid. The Brussels Museum has a Female Portrait dated 1637 that was misattributed to him beginning in the 19th century.