Jan Siberechts - Pasture with two sleeping shepherdesses

Jan Siberechts (1627–1703) was a Flemish landscape painter who after a successful career in Antwerp, emigrated in the latter part of his life to England. His topographical views stand at the beginning of the English landscape tradition. Jan Siberechts was born in Antwerp, the son of a sculptor with the same name. He trained in Antwerp with his father and became a master in the local Guild of Saint Luke by 1648. It is possible but not certain that in the late 1640s, early 1650s he visited Italy. He married Maria-Anna Croes in Antwerp in 1652. He developed a personal style of painting landscapes, which impressed George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham when he visited Antwerp in 1670. The Duke invited the artist to England.