Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Looten, Jan
LOOTEN (LOTEN), JAN (1618–1681), landscape-painter, born in 1618, appears to have been a native of Amsterdam, where he was married in 1643. He painted landscapes of a sublime or romantic description, with dark woods and waterfalls, in the style of Roelandt Roghman and Allart van Everdingen. There is a landscape by him in the picture gallery at Berlin, dated 1659, and three small landscapes painted by him on copper are in the gallery at Dresden. Looten also painted some views of the Alps in Switzerland. He came to London early in the reign of Charles II, and died there in 1681. There were three landscapes by him in James II's collection, and his pictures are to be met with, much darkened by age, in private collections in England. In the National Gallery is a gloomy and impressive ‘River Scene with Figures.’
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Woltman und Woermann's Geschichte der Malerei; Catalogues of the Berlin and Dresden Picture Galleries; Batho's Cat. of James II's collection; Kramm's Levens en Werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Konstschilders, &c.]