Artist

Joseph Van Aken

Portrait of Joseph Van Aken
Portrait of Joseph Van Aken

Habsburg Netherlands, 1699–1749

Joseph Van Aken was a Habsburg Netherlands Rococo painting artist. 3 works are cataloged here, principally at Ashmolean Museum. Joseph Van Aken was born in Antwerp.

Josef van Aken, known in England as Joseph van Aken and Joseph Van Aken of Heacken (c. 1699, Antwerp – 4 July 1749 London) was a Flemish genre, portrait and drapery painter who spent most of his career in England. Initially successful in England with his fashionable conversation pieces and other genre scenes, he gradually specialised as a drapery painter. Drapery painters were specialist painters who completed the dress, costumes and other accessories worn by the subjects of portrait paintings.

They worked for portrait painters with a large clientele. He was recognised as one of the foremost drapery painters active in mid-18th-century England and was employed in that capacity by many leading and lesser known portrait painters of his time.

Works by Joseph Van Aken

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.