Jan Linsen

Jan Linsen (Hoorn, 1602 or 1603 – Hoorn, May 26, 1635) was a Dutch painter of mythological and historical themes.

Jan Linsen travelled in France and Italy on a Grand Tour, and in Rome he became a member of the painters' circle known as the Bentvueghels, with the nickname Hermafrodito. While on a ship bound homewards from Italy, he was captured by Moorish pirates. He was ransomed for 20 pieces of silver, which was paid by his company. He later painted a scene of this encounter that still hung in Hoorn when Arnold Houbraken was writing. He died young, according to Houbraken, due to an argument in a bar, where he was stabbed to death by a man whom he claimed to have loved and forgave before he died of the wound.

• (in Dutch) Jan Linsen biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature

• recently auctioned works by Jan Linsen