Willem Cornelisz Duyster (1599–1635) was a Dutch Golden Age painter from

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 ...

, best known for his " guardroom scenes" (''cortegaarddje''), genre paintings showing the military life.

Biography

According to the

Netherlands Institute for Art History 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 ...

, he was named after his house on the Amsterdam Koningstraat, which was called "De Duystere Werelt", the ''dim world''. He knew his exact contemporary

Pieter Codde Pieter Jacobsz Codde (December 11, 1599 – October 12, 1678) was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits. Life Codde was a technically skilled painter. He is said to have studied with Frans Hals, but it is more likely ...

well though, in a brawl between them in 1625, Codde hit him in the face with a "tin pitcher" at a country house party hosted by another artist. He married the sister of the painter

Simon Kick Simon Kick (1603, Delft – 1652, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography According to the RKD he was the son of the Delft varnish worker Willem Kick.genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

such as merry company paintings, and military scenes. Unlike many painters of guardroom scenes, he avoided depicting prostitutes, with the women in his military paintings often hostages for ransom or the victims of looting or worse. He exhibited a strong ability to paint textiles, accurately characterize his subjects, and to depict relationships between his figures. Duyster's career was cut short when he succumbed to the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

in 1635.

Notes

References

*Franits, Wayne, ''Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting'', 2004, Yale UP,

External links

Works and literature
at PubHist
Vermeer and The Delft School
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has material on Willem Cornelisz Duyster 1599 births 1635 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Amsterdam {{Netherlands-painter-stub