Born 1573/74 (1575?) in Antwerp, where he died in 1632. He was trained by Jan Snellinck and then travelled to Italy, where he is already mentioned in Rome in 1598. In 1601 he became a member of the Antwerp painters’ fraternity. He painted large canvases with religious, mythological, allegorical and historical motifs. He also painted portraits. He is known as a representative of Antwerp “classicism”. Janssens’ compositions are clear, the colours are bright, the bodies plastically modelled. His contemporaries regarded him very highly and he is an important artist in the development of Flemish art leading to Rubens. He was the father of the painter Abraham II and father-in-law of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Janssens’ work is to be found in museums and galleries in Belgium, Germany, France, Austria and elsewhere.
Lit.: Catalogue du Musée d'Anvers, Anvers 1857, pp. 149-151 (Text: P. Génard); J. Denucé, Brieven en documenten betreffende Jan Breughel I en II (Bronnen voor de Geschiedenis van de Vlaamsche Kunst), III, Antwerpen-'s Gravenhage 1934; Justus Müller Hofstede, Abraham Jansens, Zum Problem des flämischen Caravaggismus, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, Jahrbuch der Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, N. F., XIII, 1971, pp. 208-303; Joost van der Auwera, Conservatieve tendensen in de contrareformatorische kunst - Het geval Abraham Janssen, De zeventiende eeuw 5, Nr. 1, 1989, pp. 32-43; De Maere & Wabbes: Ilustrated Dictionary, Vol. I and II, Brussels 1994.