Hendrik Verschuring 1627 - Gorinchem - 1690 - Dordrecht

Hendrik Verschuring (1627–1690) was a

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...

landscape painter from

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( or ), also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of Oc ...

who often decorated his landscapes with soldiers on horseback.

Biography

His father was a ''hopman'', which is a Dutch term for a flag bearer of a

schutterij Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...

. When his son seemed to have more interest in art than in military matters, he was sent to learn drawing from a portrait painter, Dirck Govertsz, at the young age of eight.Hendrik Verschuring biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

, courtesy of the

Digital library for Dutch literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

At thirteen he became the pupil of

Jan Both Jan Dirksz Both (between 1610 and 1618 - August 9, 1652) was a Dutch people, Dutch painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, and etcher, who made an important contribution to the development of Dutch Italianate landscape painting. Biography Bo ...

where he stayed six years, until he left Utrecht for a trip to Rome. He made drawings of all the places he stayed, especially new buildings or items of interest. His work was in demand in Venice, so he stayed in Italy for ten years. On his return journey in Paris, he met Joan Huydecoper, the son of the Mayor (burgermeester) of Maarseveen, who was on his

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

to Italy and who persuaded him to be his guide. He again spent three more years in Italy and returned finally to Gorinchem in 1662, where he continued to paint soldiers on horseback in natural landscapes. According to the RKD he was the teacher of his son

Willem Verschuring Willem Verschuring (September 25, 1660, Gorinchem – March 11, 1726, Gorinchem), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography He learned to paint from his father, Hendrik Verschuring, and later became a pupil of Jan Verkolje in Delft.