Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627, in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after ...

– 19 October 1678, in Dordrecht) was a Dutch painter of the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

, who was also a poet and author on art theory.

Biography

Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten trained first with his father Dirk van Hoogstraten and stayed in Dordrecht until about 1640. On the death of his father, he moved to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

where he entered the workshop of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

. A short time later, he started out on his own as a master and painter of portraits. He later made several travels which took him (1651) to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Rome and London, finally retiring to Dordrecht. There he married in 1656, and held an appointment as provost of the mint.

Paintings and etches

Tromp-l'oeil Still-Life 1664 Hoogstraeten

View of a Corridor 1662 Samuel van Hoogstraten

A sufficient number of Van Hoogstraten's works have 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 a 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 The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an ...

. He was also skilled at

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

still lifes. 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 The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the ...

at Amsterdam), imitates

de Hooch De Hooch was the surname of a number of Dutch Golden Age painters of unknown relationship. Their names are frequently spelled De Hoogh as well, and the modern spelling of their name would be De Hoog. Pieter de Hooch is by far the best known amongs ...

. One of his last remaining works is a portrait of Mathys van den Brouck, dated 1670. Hoogstraten also employed his skill with perspective to construct "

peepshow A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot. Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the c ...

s", or " perspective 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.Samuel van Hoogstraten 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) ...

, 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, secon ...

One of his perspective boxes is on show at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in London. It shows the interior of a typical Dutch house of his time. He produced many

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

s as well, and some of his plates are still preserved. His

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

, engraved by himself at the age of fifty, still exists. His pupils were his younger brother

Jan van Hoogstraten Jan van Hoogstraten ( 26 January 1628 - 28 July 1654) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who died young in Vienna, where he was living with his older brother Samuel van Hoogstraten. Biography Jan van Hoogstraten was born in Dordrecht. According to ...

Aert de Gelder Aert de Gelder ( or Arent; October 26, 1645 – August 27, 1727) was a Dutch painter.Cornelis van der Meulen Cornelis van der Meulen or Cornelis Vermeulen (1642, Dordrecht – 1691, Stockholm), was a Dutch painter who after training in the Dutch Republic had a career in Sweden where he became a court painter.Godfried Schalcken Godfried Schalcken (1643 – 16 November 1706) was a Dutch genre and portrait painter. He was noted for his mastery in reproducing the effect of candlelight, and painted in the exquisite and highly polished manner of the Leiden fijnschilders. L ...

Literary work

Art theoretician

Van Hoogstraten's fame derives from his versatile career as a painter, poet and zealous social climber. Besides painting and directing a mint, he devoted some of his time to literary labours. His ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' is a book on painting, the ''Introduction to the Academy of Painting, or the Visible World'' (original title: 'Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: anders de zichtbaere werelt', Rotterdam, 1678) which is in length and theoretical scope one of the most ambitious treatises on the art of painting published in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century.Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: anders de zichtbaere werelt) (1678)
in the DBNL 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 Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembere ...

's early-17th-century book on painting and painters entitled '' Het Schilder-Boeck''. One of van Hoogstraten's many students,

, later wrote the book entitled ''

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 ...

'', which included a biography of his teacher. This biography is the basis of most of the information that we have about van Hoogstraten today.

Sonnets and tragedies

Van Hoogstraten also composed

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

s and

tragedies Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

. We are indebted to him for some of the familiar sayings of Rembrandt.

Gallery

File:S. van Hoogstraten Portrait of Matheus van den Broucke.jpg, Portrait of Mattheus van den Broucke (1620–85), Governor of the Indies, with the gold chain and medal presented to him by the Dutch East India Company in 1670 Image:Samuel van Hoogstraten - The Anaemic Lady.jpg, ''The anemic lady'', c. 1667 File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - Mother with a Child in a Wicker Cradle - WGA11723.jpg, ''Mother with a Child in a Wicker Cradle'', second half of 17th century File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - View of a Corridor - WGA11721.jpg, ''View of a Corridor'', c. 1670 File:Samuel van Hoogstraten, , Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie - Alter Mann im Fenster - GG 378 - Kunsthistorisches Museum.jpg, Hoogstraten's ''Man at a Window'', 1653 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) File:Adoration by the shepherds, by Samuel van Hoogstraten.jpg, '' Adoration of the Shepherds'', 58.2 × 70.8 cm, 1647 File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - Vanitas Stilleven met denken jonge man.jpg, ''

Vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-kn ...

'', 87.6 × 89.5 cm, 1640

References

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