Jan de Beyer

(b Arau, Switzerland, bapt 30 Sept 1703; d ?Cleve, c. 1785). Dutch draughtsman. He attended school in Emmerich from 1711 and sometime between 1722 and 1731 moved to Amsterdam, where he studied with Cornelis Pronk, who specialized in portraits and townscapes. Influenced by his teacher, de Beyer produced mainly topographical drawings throughout his career. Between 1732 and 1750 he travelled extensively in the Lower Rhine, making views of many towns and villages. From 1737 to 1739 and again in 1750 he worked around Vierlingsbeek, a small village in a southern province of Holland. Shortly after 1750 he settled in Amsterdam, where he studied painting under the portrait painter Jan Maurits Quinkhard, though he never really pursued painting seriously. Two years later he founded a drawing school in Amsterdam, located first at his own home and later in a tavern called The Sun.

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