Jacobus Houbraken

Jacobus Houbraken was one of the most accomplished and influential portrait engravers of the eighteenth century, celebrated for his refined line work, classical composition, and historical accuracy. Born in Dordrecht on December 25, 1698, he was the son of Arnold Houbraken, a respected painter and art biographer. Trained under his father, Jacobus moved to Amsterdam in 1707, where he would spend the rest of his life producing engraved portraits of prominent historical and cultural figures.

He first gained recognition assisting his father with The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters (1718–1721), a comprehensive history of Dutch Golden Age artists. After Arnold’s death, Jacobus helped finalize the work and soon began producing his own engraved likenesses of Dutch luminaries—many of which remain the only surviving visual records of those individuals. His style was influenced by earlier Dutch engravers such as Cornelis Cort and Jonas Suyderhoef, and his portraits often featured oval framing with detailed inscriptions and source attributions.

Houbraken’s international acclaim was solidified through his collaboration with historian Thomas Birch and artist George Vertue on The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, a monumental series published between 1743 and 1752 by John and Paul Knapton in London. Working from oil portraits in British collections, Houbraken engraved the images of statesmen, scientists, writers, and military figures, helping shape the visual memory of Britain’s past. His elegant, neoclassical portraiture became synonymous with Enlightenment ideals of dignity, learning, and moral virtue.

In his later years, Houbraken contributed to major Dutch publications, including Jan Wagenaar’s Vaderlandsche historie and Jan van Gool’s Nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilders. Even into his eighties, he remained productive, engraving genre scenes after Cornelis Troost. Over the course of his career, he completed more than 400 portraits—an extraordinary visual archive that continues to inform art historical research and portrait iconography. He died in Amsterdam on November 14, 1780, at the age of 81.