Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Rymsdyk, Jan
VAN RYMSDYK, JAN (fl. 1767–1778), painter and engraver, was a native of Holland, and at first practised as a portrait-painter. In 1767 he executed a mezzotint engraving of ‘Frederick Henry and Emilia Van Solms, Prince and Princess of Orange,’ from a painting by Jordaens at Devonshire House. Afterwards he settled at Bristol. His skill as a draughtsman and engraver brought him into the service of William Hunter (1718–1783) [q. v.], for whom he executed some of the admirable engravings which illustrate Hunter's ‘Anatomia Humani Gravidi Uteri,’ published in 1774. In 1778, in conjunction with his son Andrew, he published a series of plates from antiquities and curiosities in the British Museum, entitled ‘Museum Britannicum;’ a second and revised edition of this work was published in 1791.
His son, Andrew Van Rymsdyk (d. 1780), gained a medal at the Society of Arts in 1767, and in 1778 exhibited two enamels at the Royal Academy. He assisted his father in his works, and died at Bath in 1780. The name is sometimes anglicised erroneously as ‘Remsdyke.’
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Graves's Dictionary of Arts, 1760–1892; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual.]