Ludolf Bakhuizen

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Ludolf Bakhuizen (1630–1708)

Ludolf Bakhuizen (or Backhuysen) (28 December 1630 – 17 November 1708) was a German-born Dutch Golden Age painter who was the leading Dutch painter of maritime subjects after the two Willem van de Veldes (father and son) left for England in 1672.

Biography

He was born in Emden, East Frisia, and came to Amsterdam in about 1650, working as a merchant's clerk and a calligrapher.[1] He discovered so strong a genius for painting that he relinquished the business and devoted himself to art from the late 1650s, initially in pen drawings. He studied first under Allart van Everdingen and then under Hendrik Dubbels, two eminent masters of the time, and soon became celebrated for his sea-pieces, which often had rough seas.[2]

He was an ardent student of nature, and frequently exposed himself on the sea in an open boat in order to study the effects of storms. His compositions, which are numerous, are nearly all variations of one subject, the sea, and in a style peculiarly his own, marked by intense realism or faithful imitation of nature. In his later years Bakhuizen employed his skills in etching; he also painted a few examples each of several other genres of painting, such as portraits, landscapes and genre paintings.[2]

During his life Bakhuizen was visited by Cosimo III de' Medici, Peter the Great and also worked for various German princes. In 1699 he opened a gallery on the top floor of the famous Amsterdam townhall. After a visit to England he died in Amsterdam on 17 November 1708.[2]

Gallery

  • Bakhuizen, Ludolf ~ The Y at Amsterdam viewed from Mussel Pier, 1673, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  • Ships Running Aground in a Storm by Ludolf Bakhuizen 1690s Oil on canvas, 173,5 x 341 cm Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

  • Battle of Vigo Bay by Ludolf Bakhuizen 1702

  • A Storm in the Sea (1702), oil on canvas, 97.8 × 128.5 cm. Royal Castle, Warsaw

Sources

  • MacLaren, Neil, The Dutch School, 1600–1800, Volume I, 1991, National Gallery Catalogues, National Gallery, London, ISBN 0-947645-99-3

References

  1. ↑ Ludolf Bakhuizen biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chisholm 1911.
Attribution

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Backhuysen, Ludolf". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 

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