| Biography of old oil painting master Hendrick Avercamp what we can copy |
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Hendrick Avercamp
Dutch painter & draftsman
born 1585 - died 1634
Also known as: Hendrick Berentsz. de Stom
van Kampen Avercamp, Hendrick Berentsz. de
Stomme van Kampen Avercamp, Hendrik Avercamp,
Hendrick de Stom tot Campen, Hendrick Stom
tot Campen, Hendrick Stom van Campen,
Hendrick Stomme van Campen, Hendrick van
Campen, Hendrick Vander Stom. |
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Dutch painter, active in
Kampen, the most famous exponent of the
winter landscape. Hendrick Avercamp was deaf and dumb and
known as de Stomme van Kampen (the mute of
Kampen). As one of the first landscape
painters of the 17th-century Dutch school,
Avercamp links the archaic decorative
conception of Flemish origins and the new
realist and objective ambitions developped
in Holland by Essaias van de Velde and Jan
van Goyen. His paintings are colorful and
lively, with carefully observed skaters,
tobogganers, golfers, and pedestrians.
Avercamp's work enjoyed great popularity and
Hendrick Avercamp sold his drawings, many of which are
tinted with water-color, as finished
pictures to be pasted into the albums of
collectors (an outstanding collection is at
Windsor Castle). His nephew and pupil Barent
Avercamp (1612-79) carried on his style in
an accomplished manner.
Hendrick Avercamp was born in Amsterdam in a
house next to the Nieuwe Kerk, and was
baptized in the Oude Kerk on 27 January
1585. In 1586 the family moved to Kampen,
where Avercamp's father set up an
apothecary's business that continued to be
run after his death by his son Lambert.
Another son also studied medicine, and the
members of this well-educated family were
for many years prominent citizens of Kampen.
Hendrick's presence in Kampen is related
multiple times, for example in 1613 and
1622.
For his artistic training, Hendrick was sent
to Amsterdam to study with the Danish
portrait painter Pieter Isaacks (1569-1625).
In 1607, King Christiaan IV recalled Isaacks
to Denmark, and Avercamp appears among the
list of buyers at the auction of his
teacher's effects as "de stom tot Pieter
Isacqs" [Pieter Isaacks's mute]. Various
other records testify to Avercamp's
disability: in 1622, a document refers to
him as "Hendrick Avercamp de Stomme", and
his mother's will, drawn up in 1633,
instructs that her unmarried, "mute and
miserable" son Hendrick should receive, in
addition to his portion of the inheritance,
an extra allowance of one hundred guilders a
year for life from family capital. |
During his apprenticeship in Amsterdam,
Avercamp came under the influence of the
Flemish painters of mannerist landscapes who
were then living in the city (emigrated for
religious reasons at the end of the 16th
century), notably Gillis van Coninxloo
(1544-1607) and David Vinckboons
(1576-1630/1633). It has been suggested on
stylistic grounds that Vinckboons may have
been another of Avercamp's teachers, but no
documentation of such a relationship exists.
From his earliest works, however--the first
dated examples of which come from
1601--Avercamp's style is quite individual,
and is most strongly connected not with any
Amsterdam trends, but with the work of the
minor Kampen artist Gerrit van der Horst
(1581/1582-1629). By 28 January 1614
Avercamp was back in Kampen, where Hendrick
Avercamp seems
to have remained until his death in May
1634. There, in relative isolation from the
mainstreams of Dutch art, Avercamp devoted
himself almost entirely to the painting of
winter scenes, and specifically to
depictions of crowds of people engaging in a
wide range of activities on frozen rivers.
Such scenes were a popular theme as early as
the 16th century among Pieter I and Pieter
II Bruegel, the Grimmer and the Valckenborch,
Gillis Mostaert and Sébastien Vranck. |
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Avercamp's early landscapes have a
predominantly narrative quality, including
numerous rather daring anecdotes. His style
can be characterized by a high horizon,
vivid and chatoyant colors distributed all
over the painting, tree branches drawn over
the snow or the sky, an archaic sense of
perspective and a taste for circular formats
focusing on the layout of the depicted
scenes. As with Adriaen-Pietersz van de
Venne, his little people are depicted in
black over a white background and are busy
each with a slightly different daily task.
In later years, atmosphere became important
in his work. The horizon was brought down.
As with Van Goyen, circular frames were
progressively replaced with rectangular ones
with a large width, a popular format among
the 1620-30 painters such as Dirck Hals,
Codde, Duck or Duyster.
Avercamp had no important direct followers,
although his nephew Barent Avercamp (c.
1612-1679) was his pupil and imitated him
heavily (one of his paintings is in the
Louvre, in the Croy collection), as were
Arent Arentsz. (called Cabel)
(1585/1586-1635) and Dirck Hardenstein II
(1620-after 1674). Adam van Breen's style
was so close from Avercamp's that their
artworks are often confused (an example is
at the Louvre). Christoffel van Berghe (the
mysterious C.V.B.) was active in Middelburg
and has a similar painting exhibited in the
Mayer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp. |
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