Arnold Houbraken
Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660–14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht. He had ten children. His son Jacobus Houbraken (1698–1780) was an engraver of portraits and book illustrations, including books by his father. His daughter Antonina Houbraken also became an engraver for an Amsterdam publisher, and is known today for her embellishment of cityscapes and buildings with animals and people.
Life
Houbraken studied with Jacobus Leveck and Samuel van Hoogstraten. In 1685 he married Sara Sasbout, and around 1709 he moved from Dordrecht to Amsterdam. He died in Amsterdam in 1719. Arnold Houbraken painted mythological and religious paintings, portraits and landscapes.
Books
Between 1718 and 1721, Arnold Houbraken wrote the book, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters), which included biographies of seventeenth-century painters. The three-volumes follow the tradition of Het Schilderboeck by Carel van Mander (1604). Thirty years after Houbraken's death it was published for a second time, in expanded form. This book, important for art historians, was republished in a facsimile of the second edition in Amsterdam in 1976.
References
- Arnold Houbraken in the Digitale Bibliotheek der Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL, "Digital Library of Dutch Literature")
