Jan van Eyck

A portrait of the celebrated Flemish artist Jan van Eyck to the right. To the left, the inscription 'J. van Eyck', his signature and a painter's palette bearing the initials of designer Luc Luycx. Along the lower edge, the mint marks of the Dutch mint in Utrecht and mint master Ingrid van Herzele. The country code 'BE' and the year '2020' appear along the right edge.

In the early 15th century, when the Netherlands did not yet exist as an independent state and the region around Bruges was regarded as a centre of the European trade and art world, Jan van Eyck developed a body of painting that permanently changed Western art history. His exact date of birth is not recorded, but born around 1390 in the region around Maaseik in present-day Belgium, he worked from the 1420s at the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and lived in Bruges until his death in 1441. Van Eyck is regarded as one of the most important representatives of early Netherlandish painting and is often described as a co-founder, or at least a decisive developer, of oil painting technique — a method that allowed for the finest colour gradations, light reflections and depth of detail not previously possible in tempera painting.

His best-known work, the Ghent Altarpiece of 1432, completed together with his brother Hubert, is today counted among the most important paintings in Europe and is housed in Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, in present-day Belgium. Alongside it, works such as the Arnolfini Portrait (1434, now in London) and numerous depictions of the Madonna and saints established Van Eyck's international reputation as a master of observation and craftsmanship. His influence extended far beyond Flanders and shaped generations of painters across Europe. Belgium honoured Jan van Eyck in 2020 with the issue of a 2-euro commemorative coin — marking the 580th anniversary of his death, a deliberate signal to keep alive a cultural legacy that still resonates today.