Johannes van Bronckhorst explained

Johannes van Bronckhorst
Birth Name:Johannes Pietersz
Birth Date:1648
Birth Place:Leiden
Death Place:Hoorn
Nationality:Dutch
Field:Painting

Johannes van Bronckhorst (1648–1727) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.

Life

According to Houbraken, he learned to paint from his father Pieter van Bronckhorst, who died when he was thirteen. The young Bronckhorst was sent to work as a pastry baker for a cousin in Haarlem. He drew as a hobby, and it remained a hobby until he moved back to Hoorn to get married.

Work

He specialized in painting plants, birds, and insects. Although he remained a pastry baker, he did very well with his watercolours, which were published in engravings and commemorated with a poem by Johannes Vollenhove.[1]

His pupils were Hendrik Graauw and Herman Henstenburgh.[2] Both Bronckhorst and Herman Henstenburgh worked for the Mennonite art collector and horticulturalist Agnes Block for whom they painted animals, insects and plants from her garden.

Notes and References

  1. Johannes Bronkhorst biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
  2. https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/94242 RKD entry on Johannes van Bronckhorst