| The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses | |
| Title Orig: | De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen |
| Author: | Arnold Houbraken |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Language: | Dutch |
| Subject: | Artist biographies |
| Publisher: | Arnold Houbraken |
| Pub Date: | 1718–1721 |
The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses, or Dutch; Flemish: De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, as it was originally known in Dutch, is a series of artist biographies with engraved portraits written by the 18th-century painter Arnold Houbraken. It was published in three volumes as a sequel to Karel van Mander's own list of biographies known as the Dutch; Flemish: [[Schilder-boeck]]. The first volume appeared in 1718, and was followed by the second volume in 1719, the year Houbraken died. The third and last volume was published posthumously by Houbraken's wife and children in 1721. This work is considered to be a very important source of information on 17th-century artists of the Netherlands. The Dutch; Flemish: Schouburg is listed as one of the thousand most important works in the from the Middle Ages to the present day.[1]
The Schouburg was not the first sequel to Karel van Mander's work. Various authors had attempted to illustrate Van Mander's work and in 1649, Jan Meyssen published French: Image de divers hommes in imitation of Anthony van Dyck's Iconography. Cornelis de Bie published his Dutch; Flemish: [[Het Gulden Cabinet]] in 1662, André Félibien published his French: Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellents peintres anciens et modernes in 1666, and these were followed by Jacob von Sandrart's illustrated German: Teutsche Akademie in 1668. Houbraken was very familiar with Dutch; Flemish: Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst, 1678, published by his teacher Samuel van Hoogstraten for students of art. Roger de Piles published French: L'Abrégé de la vie des peintres in the 1690s followed by Florent le Comte with his French: Cabinet des singularitez in 1699. As a gifted engraver, Houbraken wished to correct mistakes and omissions in these earlier works, while updating biographies with engraved portraits of artists. All of these works were used as sources for Houbraken and he mentions them in the first chapter of his first volume.
The Schouburg was published in three volumes, the first of which was simply meant as an addendum to Karel van Mander's work, and listed about 200 artists born between 1466 (starting with Erasmus) and 1613 (ending with Jacques van Artois) that had been omitted or whose lives extended beyond Van Mander's 1604 publication date. The popularity of this volume was such that a second volume was prepared immediately, while plans were made to continue the project up to the period in which Houbraken was writing at the start of the 18th century.
While leaning heavily on the sources already mentioned, Houbraken also consulted local history books of various cities in the Netherlands. Other, unpublished sources for his material came from various contacts via his professional network, mostly members of the Guild of St. Luke in Holland. He listed many men who became members of the Bentvueghels group in Rome while on their Grand Tour, but he also listed most of the men in a competency list drawn up by Vincent van der Vinne before he died in 1702. Houbraken kept to a system of importance where capitals meant very important, and lower case were honorable mentions. Though the capitalized names were meant for the index, the index of the first volume was far from complete at the time of publication. A later edition of all three books in 1756 contains an improved index and this book is now available online in the Digital library for Dutch literature.
The absence from Houbraken's work of several painters who are now much more highly regarded than others he considered noteworthy, is an interesting feature of the work, and reveals changes in taste since his time; the most notorious omission is Jan Vermeer, who is mentioned once in passing. Other notorious omissions are Jan van de Cappelle, Judith Leyster, Jan Wynants, Jacobus Mancadan, and Hendrick Avercamp. While Vermeer, Ruysch, and Leyster are mentioned, they are only briefly touched upon.[2]
However, Houbraken himself died before publishing the final volume, and he repeatedly mentions the impossibility of a complete list. In his first volume he includes painters that he complained were oversights by Karel van Mander, who he regarded as his greatest example. He highly respected all artist biographers who came before him, such as Sandrart, De Bie, and De Lairesse. In fact, Houbraken was quite keen to include painters that he thought were overlooked before him and was quite thorough in his endeavours. Therefore, his omissions are equally the omissions of previous biographers, though it is Houbraken who receives all the blame. The exact state of his book at the time of his death is unknown: his son Jacob, his daughter Antonina, and his wife all helped to patch things up for publication, and it is quite possible that their own opinions slipped into the finished work.October 2023.
In general, Houbraken tends to follow the contemporary prejudices of the hierarchy of genres and undervalue landscapists, marine artists and painters of still life.
The Houbraken family appeared to manifest certain other prejudices or biases. These may be categorised, broadly, as:
Translated, the title of the book is Theatre of Painters and Paintresses, indicating that Houbraken wrote about women painters, or Dutch; Flemish: schilderessen. However, the list of women he included in the book is really quite short. Though he included short biographies of many painters who were closely related to women painters, the only paintresses he included by name were: Of these, he included illustrations of only three women: Schurman, Merian, and Koerten-Blok. Houbraken also mentioned two women poets; Gesina Brit and Catharina Questiers.
The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume I are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text. The first illustration is of Houbraken himself.
The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume II are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text.
The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume III are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text.