Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627 in Dordrecht – 19 October 1678 in Dordrecht) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who was also a poet and author on art theory.

Biography

Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten trained first with his father Dirk van Hoogstraten and stayed in Dordrecht until about 1640. On the death of his father, he moved to Amsterdam where he entered the workshop of Rembrandt. A short time later, he started out on his own as a master and painter of portraits.

He later made several travels which took him (1651) to Vienna, Rome and London, finally retiring to Dordrecht. There he married in 1656, and held an appointment as provost of the mint.

Paintings and etches

thumb|left|300px|[[Trompe-l'œil still life, 1664]]

right|thumb|View of a Corridor, [[Dyrham Park, 1662]]

A sufficient number of Van Hoogstraten's works have been preserved to show that he strove to imitate different styles at different times. In a portrait dated 1645, currently in the Lichtenstein collection in Vienna, he imitates Rembrandt. He continued in this vein until as late as 1653 when he produced a figure of a bearded man looking out of a window. This, one of the more characteristic examples of his style, is exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. He was also skilled at trompe-l'œil still lifes.

A view of the Vienna Hofburg, dated 1652, displays his skill as a painter of architecture. In contrast, a piece at the Hague representing a "Lady Reading a Letter as she crosses a Courtyard" (Mauritshuis) or a "Lady Consulting a Doctor," (in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam), imitates de Hooch. One of his last remaining works is a portrait of Mathys van den Brouck, dated 1670.

Hoogstraten also employed his skill with perspective to construct "peepshows", or "perspective boxes". For example, A Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House is a box with convincing 3D views of the interior of a Dutch house when viewed through peepholes on either end of the box. One of his perspective boxes is on show at the National Gallery in London. It shows the interior of a typical Dutch house of his time.

He produced many etchings as well, and some of his plates are still preserved. His self-portrait, engraved by himself at the age of fifty, still exists.

His pupils were his younger brother Jan van Hoogstraten, Aert de Gelder, Cornelis van der Meulen, and Godfried Schalcken.

Literary work

Art theoretician

Van Hoogstraten's fame derives from his versatile career as a painter, poet and zealous social climber. Besides painting and directing a mint, he devoted some of his time to literary labours. His magnum opus is a book on painting, the Introduction to the Academy of Painting, or the Visible World (original title: 'Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: anders de zichtbaere werelt', Rotterdam, 1678) which is in length and theoretical scope one of the most ambitious treatises on the art of painting published in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century. It covers issues such as pictorial persuasion and illusionism, the painter's moral standards and the relation of painting to philosophy, referring to various ancient and modern authors. While reacting to international, mainly Southern European ideas on painting which Van Hoogstraten may have encountered during his travels, the treatise also reflects contemporary talk and thought on art from Dutch studios. He wrote it as a sequel to Karel van Mander's early-17th-century book on painting and painters entitled Het Schilder-Boeck. One of van Hoogstraten's many students, Arnold Houbraken, later wrote the book entitled The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters, which included a biography of his teacher. This biography is the basis of most of the information that we have about van Hoogstraten today.

Sonnets and tragedies

Van Hoogstraten also composed sonnets and tragedies. We are indebted to him for some of the familiar sayings of Rembrandt.

<gallery heights="133" caption="Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten's paintings">

File:Adoration by the shepherds, by Samuel van Hoogstraten.jpg|Adoration of the Shepherds, 58.2 × 70.8&nbsp;cm, 1647

File:Brunaille Self-Portrait Hoogstraten.png|Brunaille Self-Portrait, 1677, Panel, 20 x 16.4 cm, Dordrechts Museum

File:S. van Hoogstraten Portrait of Matheus van den Broucke.jpg|Portrait of Mattheus van den Broucke (1620–85), Governor of the Indies, with the gold chain and medal presented to him by the Dutch East India Company in 1670

File:Portrait Norton Knatchbull 1667 Hoogstraten.png|Portrait of Norton Knatchbull, Canvas, 208.5 x 131.5 cm, Dordrechts Museum

File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - The Anaemic Lady.jpg|The anemic lady, c. 1667

File:Young woman half-door 1645 hoogstraten.png|alt=A young woman leaning over an open half-door.|Young woman at half-door, 1645, Canvas, 102.5 x 85.1 cm, Art Institute of Chicago

File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - Mother with a Child in a Wicker Cradle - WGA11723.jpg|Mother with a Child in a Wicker Cradle, second half of 17th century

File:Samuel van Hoogstraten, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie - Alter Mann im Fenster - GG 378 - Kunsthistorisches Museum.jpg|Hoogstraten's Man at a Window, 1653 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

File:Young man reading with Vanitas still life.png|alt= A young man is sitting at a desk, reading a book.|Young man reading with Vanitas still life, Panel, 58 x 74 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - Vanitas Stilleven met denken jonge man.jpg|Vanitas, 87.6 × 89.5&nbsp;cm, 1640

File:Trompe-l’œil still life 1655 hoogstraten.png|alt=A still life painting of ordinary everyday objects hanging from a wooden door.|Trompe-l’œil still life, 1655, canvas, 92,5 x 72cm, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

File:Innerer Burgplatz.jpg|alt=The Innerer Burgplatz in Vienna|Inner courtyard of the Vienna Hofburg, 1652, Panel, 78.6 x 84.5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

File:Samuel van Hoogstraten - View of a Corridor - WGA11721.jpg|View of a Corridor, c. 1670

File:Perspective view with a young man reading in a renaissance palace.png|Perspective view with a young man reading in a renaissance palace, 1662/67, Canvas, 238.5 x 174 cm, Dordrechts Museum

File:Perspective View with a Woman Reading a Letter by Samuel van Hoogstraten Mauritshuis 66.jpg|Perspective View with a Woman Reading a Letter, 1670, Canvas, 214 x 179 cm, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis

File:View of the north transept of Westminster Abbey.png|alt=A church being viewed through a frame inside the picture.|View of the north transept of Westminster Abbey, 1662/67, Canvas, 156 x 110 cm, Dordrechts Museum

File:The triumph of truth and justice hoogstraten.png|alt=A nude woman holding a scale and a mirror, while standing in front of an ornate pillar.|The triumph of truth and justice, 1670, Canvas, 205 x 200 cm, Private collection

File:Self-Portrait young Hoogstraten 1645.png|Self-Portrait, Panel, 54.1 x 44.8 cm, Die fürstlichen Sammlungen, Vaduz-Vienna,

</gallery>

References

  • <!--Middle Dutch--> Samuel van Hoogstraten biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
  • Peepshow box at the National Gallery
  • Works and literature on Samuel van Hoogstraten
  • Vermeer and The Delft School, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten
  • Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Hermitage, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (cat. no. 13)