<Back to Index>
- Physician Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, 1672
- Painter Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, 1627
- King of the Hellenes Constantine I, 1868
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627, Dordrecht - 19 October 1678, Dordrecht), was a Dutch painter of the Golden Age.
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten was first a pupil of his father Dirk van Hoogstraten, living at Dordrecht until about 1640. On the death of his father, he changed his residence to Amsterdam and entered the school of Rembrandt. A short time later, he started as a master and painter of portraits. He then set out on a round of travels which took him (1651) to Vienna, Rome and London, finally retiring to Dort. There he married in 1656, and held an appointment as provost of the mint.
A
sufficient number of Van Hoogstraten's works has been preserved to show
that he strove to imitate different styles at different times. In a
portrait dated 1645, currently in the Lichtenstein collection in
Vienna, he imitates Rembrandt. He continued in this vein until as late
as 1653 when he produced the wonderful figure of a bearded man looking
out of a window. This, one of the more characteristic examples of his
style, is exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. A
view of the Vienna Hofburg, dated 1652, displays his skill as a painter
of architecture. In contrast, a piece at the Hague representing a "Lady
Reading a Letter as she crosses a Courtyard" (Mauritshuis) or a "Lady
Consulting a Doctor," (in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam), imitates de Hooch. One of his last surviving works is a portrait of Mathys van den Brouck, dated 1670. Hoogstraten also employed his skill with perspective to construct "peepshow" boxes. For example, A Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House is a box with convincing 3D views of the interior of a Dutch house when viewed through peepholes on either end of the box. Van
Hoogstraten's fame derives from his versatile career as poet, painter
and zealous social climber. Besides directing a mint, he devoted some
time to literary labours. His 'magnum opus' is a book on painting, the Introduction to the Academy of Painting (Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst, Rotterdam 1678) which is in
size and theoretical scope one of the most ambitious painting treatises
published in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. It covers
issues such as pictorial persuasion and illusionism, the painter's
moral standards and the relation of painting to philosophy, referring
to various ancient and modern authors. While reacting to international,
mainly Southern European ideas on painting which Van Hoogstraten may
have encountered during his travels, the treatise also reflects
contemporary talk and thought on art from Dutch studios. He wrote it as
a sequel to Karel van Mander's similar book Het Schilder-Boeck, and one of van Hoogstraten's many students, Arnold Houbraken,
later wrote another book, where he included a biography of his teacher.
This is how we know so much about van Hoogstraten today. Van Hoogstraten also composed sonnets and tragedies.
We are indebted to him for some of the familiar sayings of Rembrandt.
He was an etcher too, and some of his plates are still preserved. His
portrait, engraved by himself at the age of fifty, still exists.
