Brief Biography-John Francis Douven /Jan Frans van Douven from Roermond was a disciple of one Gabriel Lambertin in Liege. After two years, he studied under Lambertin’s nephew Christopher Puitlink, a landscape painter who had studied in Rome. He came to the attention of the finance minister of Charles II of Spain, Don Jan Dellano Velasco, who employed him to copy his collection of Italian master’s paintings for three years. Douven acquired many techniques from working with Italian paintings.
He went to Düsseldorf in 1682, where he painted several noblemen and was appointed principal painter to the court of Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine. He accompanied Johann Wilhelm II to Vienna, where he painted the Emperor and Empress, receiving a handsome reward. He undertook several commissions for Denmark, Portugal, and Tuscany courts, where he painted numerous portraits of nobility, including Three emperors and empresses, Five kings and seven Queens. He died in Düsseldorf in 1727. A few of his works hang in the Uffizi in Florence.