他早期的职业生涯包括长时间的呆在意大利,在那里他采用了一种空间和造型的影响十四世纪绘画。从1381年他宫廷画师来路易德公,布拉班特公爵,从路易的死亡在1384年为他的女婿和继任者,菲利普大胆,尽管他仍然在伊普尔,做很多工作,现在主要是装饰,在菲利普的城堡消失了Hesdin充满了复杂的机械设备,今天我们可以称之为一个游乐场的本性,这需要绘画。像许多宫廷画家,包括Jan范艾克,他被任命为管家德房间公爵(1387年),1391年晋升为宫廷画师。他继续工作,菲利普的继任者无畏的约翰,但在1409年出现在公爵的账户。

His early career included a lengthy stay in Italy, where he adopted a sense of space and use of modelling influenced by Trecento painting. From 1381 he was court painter to Louis de Mâle, Duke of Brabant, and from Louis's death in 1384 worked for his son-in-law and successor, Philip the Bold, although he remained based in Ypres, doing much work, mostly decorative, at Philip's now vanished chateau at Hesdin, which was full of elaborate mechanical devices, of what we might today call a fairground nature, which needed painting.^[3] Like many court artists, including Jan van Eyck, he was appointed valet de chambre to the Duke (in 1387), and in 1391 promoted to court painter. He continued to work for Philip's successor John the Fearless, but last appears in the Ducal accounts in 1409.