JOHN VAN, painter of landscapes, cattle, and sea pieces, was born at Leyden in 1596; and was for some time intrusted by Isaac Nicholai, who was reputed a good painter; but afterwards he became the disciple of Esaias Vandervelde, the most celebrated landscape painter of his time. Van Goyen very soon rose into general esteem; and his works are more universally spread through all Europe than the works of any other master, for he possessed an uncommon readiness of hand and freedom of pencil. It was his constant pleasure and practice to sketch the views of villages and towns situated on the banks of rivers or canals; of the sea-ports in the Low Countries; and sometimes of inland villages, where the scenes around them appeared to him pleasing or picturesque. Those he afterwards used as subjects for his future landscapes; enriching them with cattle, boats, and figures in character, just as the liveliness of his imagination directed. He understood perspective extremely well, and also the principles of the chiaro-scuro; which branches of knowledge enabled him to give his pictures a strong and agreeable effect. He died in 1656, aged 60.—His usual subjects were sea-pieces, or landscapes with views of rivers, enlivened with figures of peasants either ferrying over cattle, drawing their nets in still water, or going to or returning from market. Sometimes he represented huts of boors on the banks of rivers, with overhanging trees, and a beautiful reflection of their branches from the transparent surface of the waters. These were the subjects of his best time, which he generally marked with his name and the year; and the high finished pictures of Van Goyen will be for ever estimable. But as he painted abundance of pictures, some are light, some too yellow, and some negligently finished; though all of them have merit, being marked with a free, expeditious, and easy pencil, and a light touch. His pictures frequently have a grayish cast; which did not arise from any mismanagement of the tints, or any want of skill in laying on the colours; but was occasioned by his using a colour called Haerlen blue, much approved of at that time, though now entirely disfused, because the artists found it apt to fade into that grayish tint; and it hath also rendered the pictures of this matter exceedingly difficult to be cleaned without injuring the finer touches of the finishing. His best works are valued so highly in most parts of Europe, and especially in the Low Countries, that they deservedly afford large prices, being ranked in Holland with the pictures of Teniers; and at this time are not easily procured, particularly if they are undamaged, though his lighter performances are sufficiently common.