Dutch painter and draughtsman. It seems unlikely that he is the same as the Jacobus de Wit who was a member of the Alkmaar Guild of St Luke in 1637 or as the Jan de Wet (b Hamburg, c. 1617) who was a pupil of
Rembrandt. Sumowski has disentangled his work from that of
Gerrit de Wet, Daniel Thievaert (1613-57) and of his own son, Jacob de Wet the younger (b Haarlem, c. 1640; d Amsterdam, 11 Nov 1697).
De Wet s works are predominantly of
biblical and mythological subjects, and his early painting, the Raising of Lazarus (1633; Darmstadt, Hessische Landesmuseum), is close to the work of Jan Pynas and Pieter
Lastman. Another painting of the same subject, executed in 1634, is much closer to Rembrandt s work of the early 1630s, and the pronounced emotional content and strong chiaroscuro in much of his work may indicate that he was a pupil of
Rembrandt. His later work places a greater emphasis on the landscape backgrounds, often relegating the figures to an almost incidental role, with a use of colour closer to Cuyp s idyllic scenes (e.g. Landscape with a Ferry, London, National Gallery).
A number of drawings by de Wet exist, including his sketchbook (c. 1636; Haarlem, Gemeentarchf, MS. Hs 230), which is predominantly pre-Rembrandtesque in style. The sketchbook also notes his pupils, who included Paulus
Potter (1642) and his own son. Jacob de Wet the Younger worked in Edinburgh and copied a series of paintings depicting the Kings of Scotland (Edinburgh, Palace Holyroodhouse, Royal Collection), as well as executing some of the decorative work in Holyroodhouse.
