Jan Jansz. de Stomme

Jan Jansz. de Stomme (c. 1615 – c. –1658), was a portrait painter active during the Dutch Golden Age. He was born deaf and mute, and used the nickname "De Stomme" ('the Mute'). His father was a baker also named Jan Jansz. who had served as burgemeester of his native town of Franeker. On his father's death in 1628, De Stomme was orphaned: he came under the guardianship of a lawyer, Dirk Vogelzang, and subsequently spent time in the town of Leeuwarden, where he is believed to have been taught to paint by Wybrand de Geest. He may also have been a pupil of the Leeuwarden painter Harmen Willemsz, and – according to a later, and possibly apocryphal, family tradition – of Rembrandt.

In 1643, De Stomme moved to Groningen, where he became a successful portrait painter. He painted around forty-five known works, and was particularly known for portraits of the local aristocracy. His first fiancée died in 1649 around a year after their engagement, possibly in childbirth. He remarried in 1650 and had two daughters. Anton Deusing, a German physician and mathematician, reported in 1656 that De Stomme used sign language to discuss theology with his wife and a servant; the veracity of this story has been questioned, though another comment exists from Samuel Maresius, a French theologian who sat for a portrait by De Stomme, that he was able to use signs to express his Calvinist religious faith. De Stomme died in 1657 or early 1658; his wife and the younger of their two daughters died around the same time.