Birth Year : 1620
Death Year : 1691
Country : Netherlands
Aelbert Cuyp, a landscape artist who was often called the Dutch Lorrain,
was born in Dordrecht. He came from a family of artists; his grandfather
and uncle were glass stainers and his father, Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, was
a portraitist. Cuyp studied art with his father and had as his fellow student
a young uncle. Upon the death of his parents, Cuyp inherited a considerable
fortune and a few years later, in 1659, he married a widow who was a member
of a patrician family. He was active in civic and religious affairs in
Dordrecht throughout his life, becoming a deacon of the Reformed Community
in 1659, an elder of the Church Council in 1667, and a member of the Tribunal
of Eight for the Southern Provinces in 1682. Cuyp's wife died in 1689 and
he probably spent the last two years of his life at the home of his only
daughter and her husband, proprietor of a brewhouse called "le Lis."
Cuyp, who painted still lives, animals, portraits, and landscapes, worked
in two distinct styles. Between 1639 and 1645, under the influence of other
artists, Cuyp painted naturalistic, diagonal compositions that show a good
sense of space and an almost monochromatic yellowish-gray color. His more
individualistic style, most evident in his work from the period between
1650 and 1670, is considered his best. Cuyp's paintings are sunny and lively
in atmosphere, profound in tonalities, simple in outline, well-balanced
in composition, and notable for the large, rich foreground masses. Although
his palette tends largely to yellow, pinkish red, warm browns, and olive
green rather than blue and silver grey, he is considered a forerunner of
Vermeer in his handling of light.
|
|
View
all Aelbert Cuyp
Books about Aelbert Cuyp |
