17^th Century Dutch

Painter of animated landscapes, landscapes and seascapes; printmaker and drawing artist.

The son of a wine merchant who was a member of the city council of Delft, he travelled to Italy where he stayed around three years. There he made countless drawings that he would use throughout his life. In 1658 he converted to Catholicism to marry the daughter of the painter Wybrand de Geest, who painted the couple’s portraits.

He was a member of the group of Dutch landscape painters who made Italianate works in the style of Claude Lorrain, representing an idealised nature bathed in golden light.

His paintings usually show a group of trees in the foreground, framing the edges of a composition always animated by figures of animals or people.