Eyck, HUBERT and JAN VAN, two illustrious painters of the early Flemish school. They were probably born at Alden Eyck or Maas Eyck on the Maas. The date of their birth is uncertain; but Hubert is supposed to have been born about 1370, and Jan about 1389. The distinction of being the inventors of oil-painting is claimed for them, though sufficient evidence has been adduced to show that the method was practised previously. Before their time, however, the custom, particularly in Italy, was to paint with gums or other substances of an adhesive nature dissolved in water, and they were the first who brought into notice and perfected the mode of mixing colours with oil or some medium in which oil was the chief ingredient; while for transparent and brilliant colouring and minute finish their works have never been surpassed. Jan appears to have been instructed in art by his elder brother, and to have painted in conjunction with him as court-painter to Philip of Charolais till 1422, when he entered the service of John of Bavaria, Count of Holland, at the Hague; and in 1425 he was appointed painter and varlet-de-chambre to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and practised his art chiefly at Bruges. Hubert continued to reside at Ghent, and at the time of his death, on 18th September 1426, was engaged upon a very important altarpiece, with folding-doors, the only work which we can certainly assign to him, and which was completed by his brother. Its subject was 'The Adoration of the Lamb,' and it was painted for Jodocus Vyds, who presented it to the cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent. The two central divisions of this picture are all that now remain in the church at Ghent, the wings being in the Gallery at Berlin, with the exception of those representing Adam and Eve, which are in the Brussels Museum. The masterpieces of the brothers are for the most part in the cities of Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Berlin, Munich, and Paris. In the National Gallery, London, there are three pictures of Jan van Eyck, which well exemplify the high qualities of his art. These are portraits of Jean Arnolfini and Jeanne de Chenany, his wife, standing in the middle of an apartment, with their hands joined—signed and dated 1434; the portrait of a man in a cloak and fur collar, with a red handkerchief twisted round the head as a turban—painted, according to an inscription on the lower part of the frame, October 21, 1433; and the portrait of a man with a dark-red dress and a green head-covering—signed and dated 10th October 1432. In the Louvre is his exquisitely finished little picture of 'Chancellor Rollin kneeling before the Virgin.' Jan died at Bruges, 9th July 1440.
MARGARET VAN EYCK, a sister of the two above painters, is mentioned as an excellent artist by Lucas de Heere and Van Manden. A 'Virgin and Child,' in the National Gallery, London, was formerly assigned to her, but in the catalogue of 1889 is attributed to an unknown painter of the Early Flemish school; and she is believed to have executed the miniatures in the missal of the Duke of Bedford. She died before 1431. See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Early Flemish Painters (3d ed. 1879).