Peter de Witte (1617,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, to 1667, Antwerp), was a Flemish Baroque painter.

Biography

According to the Dutch biographer

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 ...

, the painter whose name was spelled Peter de Wit was worthy of indexing in Houbraken's ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (''

The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters ''The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses'', or ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'', as it was originally known in Dutch, is a series of artist biographies with engraved portraits written by the 1 ...

'') (1718), with a snippet of poetry about deWit by

Cornelis de Bie Cornelis de Bie (10 February 1627 – ) was a Flemish '' rederijker'', poet, jurist and minor politician from Lier. He is the author of about 64 works, mostly comedies. He is known internationally today for his biographical sketches of Flemish ...

that mentioned de Wit's talents as a landscape painter.

Het Gulden Cabinet ''Het Gulden Cabinet vande Edel Vry Schilder-Const'' or ''The Golden Cabinet of the Noble Liberal Art of Painting'' is a book by the 17th-century Flemish notary and ''Chamber of rhetoric, rederijker'' Cornelis de Bie published in Antwerp. Writte ...

, p 393Peter de Wit of Antwerp mentioned
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by

, 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 ...

De Witte was the illegitimate son of Pieter de Witte II and the brother of

Gaspar de Witte Gaspar de Witte (variations on his first name: Caspar, Jasper, and Jaspar) (bapt. 5 October 1624, Antwerp - 20 March 1681, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter who is known for his landscapes and gallery paintings. Life Gaspar de Witte was born in Ant ...

and Jan Baptist.Peter de Witte
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

After learning to paint landscapes from his father, he travelled to Italy, and on his return he became a member of the Antwerp

Guild of St. Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...

in 1646. His pupil was Philips Bonnecroy. No works have been attributed to him specifically, though de Bie's poem mentions various birds, and a bird illustration decorates the page of the book with the poem on it.

References

External links

Peter de Witte
Auction results on

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witte, Peter de 1617 births 1667 deaths Flemish Baroque painters Flemish landscape painters Painters from Antwerp