Hendrick Van Cleve, the brother of Martin Van Cleve, the elder, and of Willem Van Cleve, the younger, was a native of Antwerp. It is not known under whom he studied; but he went to Italy when young, and returned to his native country a good painter of landscapes. His pictures are distinguished by an uncommon lightness of touch, and an excellent tone of colour. The backgrounds of the historical works of his brother Marten and of Frans Floris are frequently painted by this artist, and are harmonized with the figures with great intelligence. In the Belvedere at Vienna is the 'History of the Prodigal Son' by him. He was received into the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp in 1551. Hendrik van Cleef distinguished himself as an engraver. We have several plates by him of landscapes and views near Rome, after his own designs or those of Melchior Lorch, which he sometimes signed Henricus Clivensis, fecit, and sometimes marked with a cipher. They are as follow:
There is a series of thirty-eight plates by this artist, entitled Ruinarum varii prospectus, ruriumque aliquot delineationes, published by Theodorus Galle. He died at Antwerp in 1589.
His son, Hendrik Van Cleve, who was born at Antwerp, settled about 1597 at Ghent, where he was much esteemed, but his works are now confounded with those of his father. He died at Ghent in 1646.
This article incorporates text from the article "CLEEF, Hendrik Van" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.