Jan van Oolen

Dog, Rooster, and Chickens in a Yard, now in the São Paulo Museum of Art

Adriaen, or Jan van Alen (1651–1698) was a painter from the Northern Netherlands. He was born as the son of the animal painter Jacob van Oolen in Amsterdam, with whom his works are sometimes confused.^[1] He became an imitator of Melchior Hondekoeter, and his pictures, like those of that master, represent fowls, landscapes, and still-life.^[2] Though inferior to Hondekoeter, he painted those objects with great fidelity. He also imitated other masters of the period with so much success that his copies have often passed for originals. He died in Amsterdam.

References

1. Adriaen van Oolen in the RKD
2. Jan van Alen in Arnold Houbraken's Schouburg

This article incorporates text from the article "Alen, jan van" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.