Brekelenkam biography of martin

This is a list of Dutch painters who were born and/or were primarily active in the Netherlands. For artists born and active in the Southern Netherlands, see the List of Flemish painters. The artists are sorted by century and then alphabetically by last name. In general, artists are included that are mentioned at the ArtCyclopedia website, in the Grove Dictionary of Art, and/or whose paintings regularly sell for over $20,000 at auctions. Active painters are therefore underrepresented, while more than half of the artists are baroque painters of the 17th century, roughly corresponding to the Dutch Golden Age. The names of older artists often have many different spellings; the preferred spelling is used as listed in the Netherlands Institute for Art History database, but several painters are listed twice when their common alternative names are alphabetically far apart.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

14th and 15th century

• Bosch, Hieronymus ('s-Hertogenbosch 1450 – 's-Hertogenbosch 1516)
• Bouts, Dieric (Haarlem 1415 – Leuven 1475)
• Christus, Petrus (Baarle 1415/1435 – Bruges 1476)
• David, Gerard (Oudewater 1460 – Bruges 1523)
• Engelbrechtsz, Cornelis (Gouda c. 1462 – Leiden 1527)
• Geertgen tot Sint Jans (Leiden? c. 1460 – Haarlem c.1495)
• Joest van Calcar, Jan (Kalkar c. 1450 – Haarlem 1519)
• Limbourg brothers (Nijmegen 1380/1390 – Dijon? 1416)
• Maelwael, Jan (Nijmegen c. 1365 – Dijon 1415)
• Master of Alkmaar (active 1475–1515 in Alkmaar)
• Master of Bellaert (active 1483–86 in Haarlem)
• Master of Delft (fl. 1490–1520 in Delft)
• Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin (fl. 1485 – 1510 in Amsterdam or Utrecht)
• Master of the Brunswick Diptych (fl. 1485 – 1510 in Haarlem?)
• Master of the Figdor Deposition (fl. 1480 – 1500 in Haarlem)
• Master of the Saint Ba

After Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) moved to Amsterdam in 1631, his pupil Gerrit Dou (1613–75) soon took over his master’s prominent position as Leiden’s leading painter. Dou’s meticulous and detailed manner of painting exerted a great influence on scores of young and ambitious local artists. Only one of them, however, ever attained his high level: Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81), “the prince of his pupils,” who, according to Dou, “carried off the crown from them all” (fig 1). Van Mieris’s work, like that of his master, was exclusively in the reach of the elite and, given the prices he commanded, only the very wealthiest of them. This essay examines these buyers, specifically the four whom Houbraken deemed to be the artist’s most important patrons: Isaac Gerard (1616–94), Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius (1614–72), Cornelis Paets (1636–94), and the mysterious “Vredenburg.”

Van Mieris vis-à-vis Dou

Van Mieris initially worked in the style of his master; his Kitchen Maid Drawing Water from a Well made before 1655 is even a literal copy of an original by Dou. He most likely produced other early work while in Dou’s workshop, including Elderly Couple in an Interior from The Leiden Collection (fig 2). After 1658, the year Van Mieris joined the Leiden Guild of Saint Luke, however, he increasingly distanced himself from his teacher. Though he still derived subjects from Dou, he now drew inspiration from the Haarlem genre painter Adriaen van Ostade (1610–85), whose work found particular favor in Leiden. Other important influences were his fellow townsmen Quiringh van Brekelenkam (after 1622–ca. 1669)(fig 3), with whom he had worked as a pupil in Dou’s workshop for some time, and Gabriel Metsu (1629–67)(fig 4). Moreover, he and his good friend Jan Steen (1625/26–79), who h