Gerbrand van den Eeckhout(Amsterdam 1621 – 1674 Amsterdam)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Gerbrand van den Eeckhout” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archivedDecember 2023).
A PDF of every version of this biography is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed bya permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout was baptized in Amsterdam on 22 August 1621. His parents were the goldsmith Jan Pietersz
van den Eeckhout (1584–1652) and Grietje Claes Leydeckers (1586–1631).[1] Gerbrand’s father was born in 1583 inHarlingen (in the province of Friesland), but was not Frisian. His father Pieter Lodewijcks (1544–1619), a Mennonite
peddler, came from Brussels, from which he had fled for religious reasons. After temporary sojourns in ‘s-Hertogenboschand Harlingen, where Pieter married Marritge Jans van Winterswijk, he ultimately acquired citizenship in Amsterdam in
1588. Five years later, Gerbrand’s father and the latter’s elder brother Lodewijck were both baptized as Protestants.
In 1612 Jan Pietersz van den Eeckhout bought two buildings on the Kalverstraat. He turned them into a single residence
called ’t Vliegend Paert, which was home to three generations of the family. Gerbrand, who never married, may have lived
there well into adulthood, for he gave the Kalverstraat as his address in documents up to 1662.[2] This is also the address
where his father was taxed for assets worth 4000 guilders in 1631, indicating that the family’s circumstances were modest
in these years.
Jan Pietersz van den Eeckhout’s affluence and social standing grew substantially when, in 1633, two years after the deathof Grietje, he took a second wife, namely Cornelia Dedel (1594–1660) from Delft. Her parents were Willem Dedel(1552–1638) and Ida Bruyns van der Dussen (1557-99), the daughter of a well-to-do brewer. Dedel—himself a brewer in
Delft and a director of the Dutch East India Company—was affluent, and as the son of a Leiden draper and burgomaster,belonged to the local patriciate. His brother-in-law was Isaac Claesz van Swanenburg (1537–1614), the famous Leiden
portrait painter and burgomaster, and father of Rembrandt’s first teacher.[3]According to Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), Van den Eeckhout was “a pupil of Rembrandt van Rijn.”[4] He would havegone to study under him at the age of fourteen.[5] He painted his earliest work in 1640.[6] This usually suggests
independence, but given his young age, it is unlikely that he already had his own studio. Upon finishing his training, hemay have stayed on for a while with his master, enjoying a privileged position. Perhaps he worked side by side with© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Ferdinand Bol (1616–80) in Rembrandt’s workshop, as his early paintings display a great similarity with works by Bol.[7]Whatever his position, Van den Eeckhout must have been on good terms with his master, for in his biography of Roelant
Roghman (1627–92), Houbraken noted that Roghman “along with Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, [was] a great friend ofRembrandt van Rijn in his time.”[8] That Roghman and Van den Eeckhout were good friends emerges from the will thatthe latter executed in 1674, in which he calls Roghman “an old acquaintance” and remembers him with 50 guilders.[9]Van den Eeckhout was an exceptionally productive and versatile artist. About two hundred paintings have been attributed
to him, along with countless drawings, etchings, book illustrations, and—doubtless inspired by his father’s
profession—pattern books for gold- and silversmiths. He painted primarily history scenes, generally of biblical subjects, aswell as portraits. His treatment of light and his handling of paint in these portraits recall Rembrandt, but in terms ofcomposition he followed the prevailing fashion. Many commissions came from his immediate surroundings, such as theportraits of his stepmother, Cornelia Dedel (1644), and of his father (1644, 1651), among others.[10] In addition, in 1657
and 1673 he portrayed the officers of the Coopers and Wine Rackers’ Guild; the former commission would have come via
his brother Jan Jansz van den Eeckhhout (1619–69), who was a wine merchant.[11]Van den Eeckhout was a history and portrait painter, but from the early 1650s he also acquitted himself well as a genre
painter. This turn was no doubt dictated by the deteriorating market, which led to increasingly fierce competition andspurred artists to pursue new avenues.[12] If he was a follower as a history and portrait painter, he proved to be an innovator
as a genre painter. His guardroom scenes from 1651 onward are still indebted to other artists, such as Anthonie
Palamedesz (1601–73), but Van den Eeckhout’s depictions of elegant companies disporting themselves on terraces or inelegant interiors were ahead of their time.
In addition to Rembrandt and Roghman, Van den Eeckhout was also acquainted with the landscape painter Willem
Schellinks (1626–78), the poet David Questiers (1623–63), and the bookseller Hieronymus Sweerts (1629–96). They all
loved poetry and exchanged poems they had penned themselves.[13] Moreover, he was in touch with the well-known rector
Jacob Heyblock (1620–90), making several contributions to his famous Album Amicorum. For instance, in 1654 Van denEeckhout wrote some lines of verse for a fine drawing he had made of Hermes and Argus, and next toan Ysvermaakje (scene of amusement on the ice) drawn by Jan van de Cappelle (1626–79). In these lines Van den
Eeckhout honored the artist “who had taught himself to paint of his own volition”[14] and whom he had portrayed one year
earlier.[15]During the last years of his life, Van den Eeckhout lived with Maria van Schilperoort, the widow of his brother Jan, on theelegant Herengracht (nowadays number 525), close to the Vijzelstraat.[16] In September 1674 he fell seriously ill and drewup his will. To his sister Ida (1634–78) he left “a picture painted by him, the testator, and already hanging in her house,”
and to his sister Margaretha “a picture equal in worth to the one he bequeathed to his sister Ida, to be taken from the works
he will leave behind and which will be assessed by someone who is knowledgeable about paintings.” To his nephew/cousin
and godchild, Gerbrand, he bequeathed “all of his art on paper and works in clay, consisting of prints, drawings, andsculpted figures and animals, so that he might enjoy the proceeds he will gain by putting them up for auction.”[17] Van den
Eeckhout died a few days later, and was taken from the Herengracht to the Oudezijds Kapel to be buried in the family
grave on 26 September 1674.

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Page 4 of 6Endnotes
1. Her parents were the cobbler Claes Gerbrandts and Marie Willems, whose brother Jan Claes Leydeckers
witnessed Gerbrand’s baptism and was later portrayed by Rembrandt van Rijn in the Nightwatch.
2. Moreover, in 1655 he was appointed sergeant of the civic guard in the district to which the Kalverstraat
belonged. See Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), The Hague, Abraham Bredius Archive.
3. Cornelia’s cousin/nephew, Huybrecht Dedel (d. 1635), is called a painter in a few Leiden documents,
but no work by him is known.
4. “Een Leerling van Rembrant van Ryn.” Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche
konstschilders en schilderessen (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam,1980), 2: 100.
5. Ulrich Thieme, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler (Leipzig, 1914), 10: 355.
6. Gideon Visited by the Angel, signed and dated 1640 (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).
7. Ferdinand Bol’s apprenticeship with Rembrandt lasted from 1636 to 1642 and so overlapped
considerably with that of Van den Eeckhout. See Walter Liedtke, “Rembrandt’s ‘Workshop’Revisited,” Oud-Holland 117 (2004): 68. After his training with Rembrandt, Van den Eeckhout isthought to have worked for some time with a follower of Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), for example
Claes Moyaert (1592–1655), given that his approach to biblical themes, and primarily his rendering offigures, are definitely indebted to Lastman.
8. “In zyn tyd, met Gerbrant van den Eekhout, een groot vriend [was] van Rembrant van Ryn.” Arnold
Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (Amsterdam,1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 1: 174.
9. “Een oude bekende.” See Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Notarial Archives, Notary A. Lock, no. 2179, fol.
97–104, 19 September 1674.
10. Portrait of Cornelia Dedel, 1644 (Private Collection). Portrait of Jan Pieterz van den Eeckhout(1584–1652), 1644 (Musée de Grenoble); see Adolph Staring, “Portretten door Gerbrand van denEeckhout,” Oud Holland 63 (1948): 180. Portrait of the artist’s father, Jan Pietersz van den Eeckhout(1584–1652), half-length, 1651 (Private Collection); see Adolph Staring, “Portretten door Gerbrand vanden Eeckhout,” Oud Holland 63 (1948): 182.
11. Officers of the Coopers and Wine Rackers’ Guild, signed and dated 1657 (National Gallery, London), inwhich his brother Jan van den Eeckhout is also portrayed. Officers of the Coopers and Wine Rackers’
Guild, signed and dated 1673 (Amsterdams Museum).
12. Piet Bakker, “Crisis? Welke crisis? Enkele kanttekeningen bij het economisch verval van deschilderkunst in Leiden na 1660,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 27 (2011): 232–70.
13. A.D. de Vries, “Willem Schellinks,” Oud Holland 1 (1883): 151–52.
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Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
Page 5 of 614. “Die de schilderkunst by hem selfs uyt eygen lust [heeft] geleert.” Kees Thomassen and J.A. Gruys,eds., The Album Amicorum of Jacob Heyblocq: Introduction, Transcriptions, Paraphrases, and Notes tothe Facsimile (Zwolle, 1998), 173–74.
15. Portrait of Jan van de Cappelle (1626–79), signed and dated 1653, (Amsterdams Museum). This portrait
may be identical to the one listed in Jan van de Capelle’s 1680 inventory. Hanging in the voorhuis (frontparlor) was “Een conterfeytsel sijnde den Overleden [van] Eeckhout” (a likeness of the deceased [by]Eeckhout). See Abraham Bredius, “De schilder Johannes van de Cappelle,” Oud Holland 10 (1892): 29.
16. H.F. Wijnman et al., Vier eeuwen Heerengracht, oneven (Amsterdam, 1976), 346. According toWijnman, Van den Eeckhout lived with his stepmother, Cornelia Dedel, yet this is impossible given thatshe died in 1660. On the basis of (possibly) his will of 1674, drawn up on the Herengracht, Manuth
assumes that Van den Eeckhout lived with Maria van Schilperoort, his brother’s widow. He bequeathed
her 300 guilders and stipulated that “ingevalle hij op sijn Overlijden noch bij sijn voornoemde behoutsuster mochte inwoonen” (in the event that at his death he was still living with his above-mentionedsister-in-law), she would receive room and board from him for the period he lived with her prior to hisdeath. See Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Notarial Archives, Notary A. Lock, no. 2179, fol. 97–104, 19
September 1674.
17. “Een stuck schilderij door hem testateur geschildert ‘t haeren huys alreede hangende”; “een stuckschilderij van gelijcke waerde als aen sijne suster Ida gelegateert, te nemen uyt de schilderijen die hij
sal comen naer te laten tot seggen van yemandt kennisse van schilderijen hebbende”; “alle sijn Papiere
Kunst en geboetseert goet, bestaende in Printen, Teyckeningen en geboedseerde beeltgens en beesges,
om de penningen die daervan by publique vendutie sullen comen te procederen by hem genooten tewerden.” See Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Notarial Archives, Notary A. Lock, no. 2179, fol. 97–104, 19
September 1674.

Literature
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen. Amsterdam,1718–21; revised edition published in The Hague, 1753; reprinted in Amsterdam, 1980, 2: 100–1.
Scheffer, J.H. “Eenige bijzonderheden betrekkelijk de familie van den beroemden Nederlandschen
Schilder Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.” Algemeen Nederlandsch Familieblad (1884): 1–4, no. 104, 2–4,no. 105.
Van der Crab, A.J.E. “Het geslacht van den Eeckhout.” De Nederlandsche Leeuw 13 (1895): 61–63.
Van Gelder, Jan Gerrit. “Gerbrand van den Eeckhout als portrettist.” Kunsthistorische mededelingen van
het Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorisch Documentatie 1 (1946): 56–58.
Staring, Adolph. “Portretten door Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.” Oud Holland 63 (1948): 180–88.
Manuth, Volker. “‘Een kindskontrefeijtsel, antycqs gedaen’ und ‘een … van Scipio africanus’. Zu zwei
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neuidentifizierten Gemälden des Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.” Oud Holland 112 (1998): 139–50.
Manuth, Volker. “Twee portretten van de Amsterdamse boekhandelaar-historicus Isaac Commelin door
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout en Pieter van Anraedt.” Amstelodamum 89 (2002): 3–11.
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Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Edited by Günter Meissner, 32: 235. Leipzig, 2002.
Liedtke, Walter. “Rembrandt’s ‘Workshop’ Revisited.” Oud Holland 117 (2004): 48–73, esp. 68.
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