Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Son, Jan Frans
VAN SON, JAN FRANS (FRANCIS), sometimes erroneously written Van Zoon (1658–1718?), painter, born at Antwerp on 16 Aug. 1658, was son of Joris Van Son (1623–1667), a well-known painter of flowers and still life in that city, whose paintings are frequently to be met with in collections. His mother's name was Cornelia Van Heulem. Van Son was a pupil of his father and a family friend, Jan Pauwel Gillemans. He practised in the same manner as his father, painting still life, flowers, fruit, and the like, but without attaining the same success. Van Son came therefore to London, and obtained a lucrative patronage through his marriage with a niece of the king's serjeant-painter, Robert Streater [q. v.] He was also patronised by Charles Robartes, earl of Radnor, who had a great number of Van Son's paintings in his house in St. James's Square. Some of Van Son's paintings were of considerable size. He lived for some time in Long Acre, but finally in St. Albans Street, St. James's, where he died about 1718. He sometimes introduced his own portrait into his paintings.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Van den Branden's Antwerpsche Schilderschool.]