from 1682 to 1684. He returned to Antwerp in 1684. According to the 18th century biographer Arnold Houbraken, Voet set out on his return journey to Antwerp from Turin together with the Dutch painter Jan van Bunnik, whom he had already met in Rome in the company of Cornelis Bloemaert. From Turin they set out for Lyons, where they met the painters Adriaen van der Cabel, Pieter van Bloemen, and Gillis Wenix. They then started out for Paris in the company of a third painter, Jacob van Bunnik who was Jan van Bunnik's brother. Voet was likely back in Antwerp in 1684. He left his hometown for Paris at some time between 1684 and 1686, was appointed as court painter and died there in 1689, living on Quai de Guénégaud. In Paris he became portrait painter to political and military personalities such as Michel Le Tellier, François-Michel le Tellier and Marquis of Humières. Jacques d'Agar was probably his pupil. Work Jacob Ferdinand Voet was a specialist portrait painter. The early Dutch biographer Houbraken noted that Voet painted history paintings and landscapes, but that it was through his royal, ecclesiastical and class portraits that he secured his success. Only portrait paintings and not a single history or landscape painting are currently attributed to him. Voet specialized in half-length portraits, in which all attention is concentrated on the subject, who emerges from a neutral, dark background. Voet's subjects usually have a reflective expression and very striking, memorable eyes, always large and evocative. He concentrated on decorative elements such as the hair and clothing of the characters. His paintings appear to have been executed with an effortless accuracy and a fluid ease. He was also noted as a painter of miniature portraits. It is likely that the works of the portrait painters Carlo Maratta (1625–1713) and Pierre Mignard (1612–1695) who were active in Rome at the same time as Voet inspired the comparable elegance of his style, which he combined with the Flemish attention to detail. Voet painted a few portraits in a genre that was popular in Flanders at the time: the portrait in garland paintings. Garland paintings are a special type of still life developed in Antwerp by artists such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Hendrick van Balen, Frans Francken the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens and Daniel Seghers. They typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Garland