Jean Haincelin, France, Paris, active 1435–1460

Formerly known as the Dunois Master after a Book of Hours painted for Jean Comte de Dunois in London (British Library, Yates Thompson MS 3) and also as the Chief Associate of the Bedford Master based on his familiarity with designs used by the latter artist, the artist can now—with reasonable certainty—be identified as Jean Haincelin. Jean Haincelin is most likely the son of Haincelin de Haguenau, court illuminator of Louis duc de Guyenne, documented in Paris from 1403 to 1424, whom most scholars recognize as the Bedford Master. He is known as a painter and illuminator in Paris between 1438 and 1449. In 1438, he is the only painter listed among the wealthiest taxpayers of the capital, asked to help fund the war of Charles VII. In 1445 and 1449, he is paid by the poet and bibliophile Charles, Duke of Orléans, for several undescribed works. The artistic relationship that unites the Bedford Master to the Dunois Master is what has led art historians to suggest their respective identification as Haincelin de Haguenau and Jean Haincelin. This hypothesis has been further confirmed by the fact that Jean Haincelin was paid around 1444 for the book box and the leather pouch for the Hours of Admiral Prigent de Coetivy, illuminated by the Dunois Master c. 1442–1444 (Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, W. MS 89): “Item pour une boeste et une boursse de cuir pour les heures.” Notable among his works are: The Hours of Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nal. 3226), the Hours of Simon de Varie (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 7; The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 74 G 37), and a panel painting the Trinité aux chanoines (Paris, Musée de Cluny, inv. Mu 1261). His principal patrons were from the Jouvenel des Ursins family, and his style is characterized by soft modeling and a pale palette with a preference for semi-grisaille or white tones.

Unpublished;

Related Literature:

Avril, François and Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520. Paris, 1993;

Marrow, James. The Hours of Simon de Varie. Los Angeles, 1995;

Reynaud, Nicole. “Les Heures du chancelier Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins et la peinture parisienne autour de 1440.” In Revue de l’Art 126 (1999): 23–35;

Reynolds in Croenen, Godfried, and Peter Ainsworth, eds. Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris Around 1400. Louvain, 2006;

Villela-Petit, Inès. “Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de Berry et les Heures de Bedford: Floraison d’études sur deux œuvres majeures de l’enluminure du XVe siècle,” In Perpsective 1 (2008): 145–50.;

Gameson in Bovey, Alixe, Laura Cleaver, and Lucy Donkin, eds. Illuminating the Middle Ages, Tributes to Prof. John Lowden from His Students, Friends, and Colleagues. Leiden, 2020.;

Adam, Elliot. “De blanc et de noir: La grisaille dans les arts de la couleur en France à la fin du Moyen Âge (1430–1515).” PhD diss. Sorbonne, 2023, 365–72.