Jan Provoost, or Jean Provost, or Jan Provost (1462/65 – January 1529) was a Belgian painter born in
Mons.
Provost was a prolific master who left his early workshop in
Valenciennes to run two workshops, one in
Bruges, where he was made a burgher in 1494, the other simultaneously in
Antwerp, which was the economic centre of the
Low Countries. Provost was also a cartographer, engineer, and architect. He met
Albrecht Dürer in Antwerp in 1520, and a Dürer portrait drawing at the National Gallery, London, is conjectured to be of Provost. He married the widow of the miniaturist and painter
Simon Marmion, after whose death he inherited the considerable Marmion estate. He died in
Bruges, in January 1529.
The styles of
Gerard David and
Hans Memling can be detected in Provoost's religious paintings. The Last Judgement painted for the Bruges town hall in 1525 is the only painting for which documentary evidence identifies Provost. Surprising discoveries can still be made: in 1971 an unknown and anonymous panoramic Crucifixion from the village church at
Koolkerke was identified as Provost's. It is on permanent loan to the
Groeningemuseum, Bruges, which has several works of Provost. A retrospective exhibition took place in 2008–2009.
Ron Spronk. Jan Provoost: Art Historical and Technical Examinations. Thesis/dissertation. 2 vls. Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit, 1993.
Bruges and the Renaissance: from Memling to Pourbus. Catalogue of exhibition held in 1998 in Bruges, ed. Maximiliaan P.J. Martens. 2 vols. Bruges, 1998