Caspar (or Gaspar) Netscher (Heidelberg, 1639 ?C Den Haag, January 15, 1684) was a Dutch portrait and genre painter. He was a master in depicting oriental rugs, silk and brocade and introduced an international style to the Northern Netherlands. Little is know of Netscher's early years. According to Arnold Houbraken's 17th century biographical study of Dutch painters he was born in Heidelberg or Prague. His father Johann Netscher probably was a sculptor from Stuttgart who died in Poland when he was two years of age. It is also suggested that Caspar may have been the son of a Rotterdam painter. His mother, fleeing from the dangers of a civil war, carried him to Arnhem. On her way two of her children died. In Arnhem he was adopted by a physician named A. Tullekens. At first he was destined for the profession of his patron, but owing to his great aptitude for painting he was placed under a local artist named Hendrick Coster, and in 1654 became a student of Ter Borch in Deventer, who had family connections to Tullekens. He was Ter Borch's most gifted pupil, probably worked as an assistant as well and he appears several times as a model on Ter Borch's paintings. The Lace-Maker by Caspar Netscher (1662), oil on canvas, 33 x 27 cm. Wallace Collection, LondonIn 1658 he set out for Italy to complete his education there. However, he didn't get farther south than Bordeaux that fall, where he married Margaretha Godijn in 1659. There he toiled hard to earn a livelihood by painting small cabinet pictures which are now highly valued on account of their exquisite finish. After moving to The Hague in 1662, possibly because of the prosecutions of Protestants, he turned his attention to portrait-painting. In this branch of his art was more successful. In 1668 he joined the Schutterij and Cosimo III de' Medici, traveling through the Netherlands bought four paintings. It is likely that Netscher knew the painters Frans van Mieris, Sr. (1635 -1681) and Gerard Dou, but it is certain that he knew the painter Gerrit de Hooch from The Hague as his wife gave her name to Gerrit's new born daughter Margarita in 1676, the event being witnessed by Caspar as well as his wife. He was patronized by William III, and his earnings soon enabled him to gratify his own taste by depicting musical and conversational pieces.   Related Paintings of caspar netscher :. | The Artist's Studio (mk05 | Maria with the child framfor hard | Amos Lawrence. about 1845. By Chester Harding, American | Christ teaching in the Synagogue at Nazareth (mk33) | St Jerome and the Angel |
Related Artists:
Pasquale Liotta
Italian, 1850 - 1912
Village procession
painted Village procession in 1640
Robert Havell Jr Prints
1793-1878 Engraver and painter, cousin of William Havell. He learnt the art of aquatint engraving from his father, Robert Havell I. He worked first in the family engraving business and then c. 1825-7 with Colnaghi in London. In 1827 he undertook the execution in aquatint of the plates for John James Audubon Birds of America, published in parts in London between 1827 and 1838. Havell engraved 425 of the plates and reworked the ten that had been engraved by William Home Lizars in Edinburgh. Havell father printed and coloured some of the double elephant folio sheets in 1827-8 after which Havell took on those tasks himself, establishing himself as a master of aquatint. Among his other important works in the medium are the plates for Mrs E. Bury Selection of Hexandrian Plants (London, 1831-4). In 1839, at Audubon invitation, Havell moved with his family to New York and embarked on a new career as a landscape painter in the style of the Hudson River school, while also working as an engraver. He settled in the Hudson River villages of Ossining (1841) and Tarrytown (1857) but painted throughout north-eastern America. View of Deerfield, Massachusetts (1847; Hist. Deerfield, MA) is characteristic of his quietly romantic idealization of his subjects. Niagara Falls from the Chinese Pagoda (1845; New York, Pub. Lib.), engraved by Havell after one of his paintings, is among the best known of his American aquatints. Though his reputation rests largely on his work for Audubon, his original subjects gave him greater opportunities to display the full range of his aquatint technique. Part of the Havell family