Every once in awhile, I come across an artist who is multi-gifted. Given the limitation of a blog, I have the problem of narrowing down examples of their talent. Such an artist is Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678). He was a painter, a poet, and a writer. Of those skills, there's so much about his art and his contributions to art, that I'll save the rest for another blog.
His early training in art was with his father, Dirk van Hoogstraten, a noted artist,who died when Samuel was 13. After that, he moved to Amsterdam to complete his training with Rembrandt. Following his tutelage when he was about 18 years of age, he traveled to Vienna.
While in Vienna, he met the emperor, Ferdinand III, and showed him 3 of his paintings. One of the paintings was such a well-done trompe-l'oeil that the emperor commented, "painting for the first time had ever deceived him."
While other known painters were happily making portraits,van Hoogstraten was too restless and spent his time experimenting with subjects such as perspective. He created what he named, "perspective boxes." He created miniature rooms with viewing holes on the outer walls. (Much like the small knot holes in fences) Through these holes, the viewer could see a 3-D view of the interior of a Dutch home.
His restlessness and thirst to learn led him to Genoa, Rome and eventually to London. There, he was commissioned to paint a perspective work. It was so remarkable that it was mentioned in Samuel Pepys' famous diary.
The fame of van Hoogstraten grew to the point that he was able to share his knowledge as a teacher and author of a famous art treatise, Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or the Visible World. Upon his death at age 51, his holdings were auctioned off and today there's only a small glimpse into this talented man's works.
Scattered throughout this blog are examples of his perspectives boxes, the time and influence of studying with Rembrandt, and his trompe-l'oiel paintings.
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