1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Janssens, Victor Honorius

JANSSENS (or Jansens), VICTOR HONORIUS (1664–1739), Flemish painter, was born at Brussels. After seven years in the studio of an obscure painter named Volders, he spent four years in the household of the duke of Holstein. The next eleven years Janssens passed in Rome, where he took eager advantage of all the aids to artistic study, and formed an intimacy with Tempesta, in whose landscapes he frequently inserted figures. Rising into popularity, he painted a large number of cabinet historical scenes; but, on his return to Brussels, the claims of his increasing family restricted him almost entirely to the larger and more lucrative size of picture, of which very many of the churches and palaces of the Netherlands contain examples. In 1718 Janssens was invited to Vienna, where he stayed three years, and was made painter to the emperor. The statement that he visited England is based only upon the fact that certain fashionable interiors of the time in that country have been attributed to him. Janssen’s colouring was good, his touch delicate and his taste refined.