Pieter de Grebber(Haarlem ca. 1600 – 1652/53 Haarlem)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Pieter de Grebber” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artists/pieter-de-grebber/ (archived June2020).
A PDF of every version of this biography is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

Many Catholic artists worked in the Northern Netherlands in the seventeenth century, but only a few of them
expressed their faith in their art. Among them was Pieter de Grebber, much of whose work is Catholic incharacter, in terms of both his outspoken Catholic subject matter and his use of light and staging. Most ofthese works had a devotional function or played a role during Mass. Even though Catholicism had officiallybeen forbidden in the Dutch Republic since the Alteratie (Alteration) in 1578, this did not prevent worshippers
from gathering clandestinely. The Catholic Church thus remained active, especially in Haarlem, which had an
extremely energetic chapter that awarded many major commissions primarily between 1590 and 1640.
No Haarlem painter profited more from this patronage than De Grebber who, in addition to great artistic talent,
had close family ties with the clergy. He received numerous commissions from many clandestine churches
outside of Haarlem as well, and painted some altarpieces for churches in Bruges and Ghent.[1] De Grebberbecame the leading representative of a style of history painting now known as Haarlem Classicism, which wasinspired by the classicizing Baroque style that Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) had introduced into Southern
Netherlandish painting. Stadholder Frederik Hendrik (1584–1647), whose taste reflected that of other
European rulers, favored this classicism. This may explain why he gave De Grebber major commissions forhis royal palaces of Honselaarsdijk (1638), Noordeinde (1646), and Huis ten Bosch (1648–50) from the late1630s on, just as the Catholic community in Haarlem was losing momentum and local patronage wasdwindling.[2]Pieter de Grebber was born in Haarlem around 1600, the eldest son of the devout Catholic history and portrait
painter Frans Pietersz de Grebber (1573–1649) and Hillegart van Lijnhoven (d. 1643).[3] His sister Maria(1602–80), whose daughter would later marry Gabriel Metsu (1629–67), and his brother Albert (1613–58) also
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Pieter de Grebber
Page 2 of 4

became painters; another brother, Maurits (160–76), took up silversmithing. In his Harlemias of 1648,
Theodorus Schrevelius (1572–1649) noted that Pieter’s first teacher was his father, “but Pieter de Grebber
far surpassed his father.”[4] According to Schrevelius, he went on to study with the renowned history painter,draughtsman and engraver Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), and with success, “for this Pieter de Grebber is as
skilled in devising inventions as neat in painting, and so deserves to be counted among the best painters ofour century.”[5]De Grebber’s father acted as an intermediary in a transaction between Rubens and the English envoy Sir
Dudley Carleton (1573–1632) in The Hague in 1618.[6] Later that year, De Grebber accompanied his father toAntwerp, where he became acquainted with the famed Flemish master whose work he thus saw firsthand. DeGrebber’s earliest paintings date from 1622, but he must have already been well known in Haarlem given that
Samuel Ampzing (1590–1632) had praised the “de Grebbers” in a preliminary version of his famous citychronicle in 1621.[7] Seven years later, in the definitive version of his Beschrijvinge ende lof der stadHaerlem, Ampzing again expressed his admiration of Pieter de Grebber as a history painter, mentioning not
only his father, but also his sister Maria, “Now I must mention Grebber and praise the father and son as wellas the daughter.”[8] According to Schrevelius, De Grebber worked for some time in Denmark, although such asojourn abroad is undocumented.
Besides the Catholic Church, secular institutions also sought out De Grebber. In 1628 he painted themagisterial Acts of Mercy for the Old Men’s Home in Haarlem,[9] and two years later the city council ordered atapestry design and a painting illustrating the conferring of the sword on the coat of arms of Haarlem.[10] Given
these official commissions, it is curious that he did not enter the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke until 1632, andthen, unlike his father, was never appointed to a guild position.
De Grebber was honored both in his native city and elsewhere. In Leiden (home of the painter Claes Lourisz
van Egmond (1575–1639), a first cousin of Pieter’s father) Philips Angel (1618–64) extolled De Grebber in
his Lof der Schilder-Konst (1642) for his mastery of human anatomy, especially his “manifold investigations
and marvelously close observations” of the changes the body displays when in motion.[11] De Grebber wasalso an art theorist. In 1649 the Haarlem printer Casteleyn published De Grebber’s pamphlet outlining elevenrules of art, which were taken largely from Karel van Mander (1548–1606).[12]De Grebber never married. He died sometime between 24 September 1652 and 29 January 1653, the day
when his house in the Beguinage, which he bought in 1634, was sold. The will he had drawn up has been lost,and no inventory of his estate has come down to us. In addition to paintings, De Grebber left behind many
drawings and a few etchings. Approximately seventy pictures are now attributed to him with certainty,including about twenty portraits, a number of which feature prominent Catholic priests.

- Piet Bakker, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Pieter de Grebber
Page 3 of 4Endnotes

1. Paul Dirkse, “Pieter de Grebber: Haarlems schilder tussen begijnen, kloppen en pastors,”
in Begijnen, pastoors en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw (Leiden, 2001),
116–27; Xander van Eck, “Resuscitating a Languishing Bishopric: Pieter de Grebber and theHaarlem Chapter,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 52 (2004): 371–78; Xander van Eck, “TheHaarlem Painters and Their Patrons,” in Clandestine Splendor: Paintings for the Catholic
Church in the Dutch Republic (Zwolle, 2007), 81–109.
2. The work that De Grebber provided for Honselaarsdijk and Noordeinde palaces has not beenpreserved. For De Grebber and the commissions granted him by Frederik Hendrik andAmalia van Solms (1602–75), see D.F. Slothouwer, De Paleizen van Frederik Hendrik(Leiden, 1945), passim; D.P. Snoep, “Honselaarsdijk: restauraties op papier,” Oud Holland 84(1969):282–83;RuudMeischke,“Degrotetrapvanhethuis

Honselaarsdijk,1633–1638,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 31 (1980): 86–103; Jan Gerrit van Gelder,“De schilders van de Oranjezaal,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 2 (1948–49): 151–52,154; M. van Eikema Hommes, “Pieter de Grebber and the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch. Part
I: The Regulen (1649),” Art Matters 3 (2005): 20–36; Margriet van Eikema Hommes andLidwien Speleers, “Pieter de Grebber and the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch. Part II:
Variations in Painting Technique,” Art Matters 3 (2005): 37–46.
3. Unless otherwise noted, all biographical information on Pieter de Grebber is taken from Irene
van Thiel-Stroman, “Pieter Fransz de Grebber,” in Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: The
Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, ed. Pieter Biesboer and Neeltje Köhler (Ghent, 2006),
168–72.
4. “MaerPieter

Grebberheeftsijn

Vader

Grebberverdeover-treft.”

Theodorus Schrevelius, Harlemias (Haarlem, 1648), 382.
5. “[W]ant dese Pieter de Grebber is soo geluckigh in inventie als suyver in ’t schilderen dat hybydebeste

Schilders

onsereeuwe

meriteertgesteltteworden.”

Theodorus

Schrevelius, Harlemia (Haarlem, 1648), 382.
6. De Grebber met Rubens in June 1612 during his first visit to the Northern Netherlands. R. deSmet,“Eennauwkeurige

datering

vanRubens’

eerstereisnaar

Hollandin1612,” in Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (1977), 199–218. For
the transaction, see the biography of Peter Paul Rubens in this catalogue.
7. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “Pieter Fransz de Grebber,” in Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: TheCollection of the Frans Hals Museum, ed. Pieter Biesboer and Neeltje Köhler (Ghent, 2006),
168, refers to Samuel Ampzing, Het lof der stadt Haerlem in Hollandt (Haarlem, 1621).
8. “Nu moet ik Grebber noemen / Den Vader, ende Soon en ook de Dochter roemen.” Samuel© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Pieter de Grebber
Page 4 of 4Ampzing, Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem (Haarlem, 1628), 370.
9. The Acts of Mercy, monogrammed and dated 1628 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem).
10. The German Emperor Frederick II Conferring on Haarlem the Sword and the Patriarch ofJerusalem Conferring the Silver Cross and the Augmentation of Coat of Arms after theConquest of Damiate (1219), monogrammed and dated 1630 (Town Hall, Haarlem).
11. “[M]enichfuldighe ondersoeckinge en wonder naeuwe waerneminge.” Philips Angel, Lof derSchilderkunst (Leiden, 1642), 52–53.
12. Pieter J.J. van Thiel, “De Grebbers regels van de kunst,” Oud Holland 80 (1965): 126–31.

Literature
Houbraken,Arnold.

De

grooteschouburgh

derNederlantsche

konstschilders

enschilderessen. Amsterdam, 1718–21; revised edition published in The Hague, 1753; reprinted
in Amsterdam, 1980, 2: 122.
Van Thiel, Pieter J.J. “De Grebbers regels van de kunst.” Oud Holland 80 (1965): 126–31.
Van Thiel-Stroman, Irene. “Pieter Fransz de Grebber.” In Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master andHer World. Edited by Pieter Biesboer and James A. Welu, 220–21. Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans
Halsmuseum; Worcester, Worcester Art Museum. New Haven, 1993.
Sutton, Peter C. “Pieter de Grebber.” In Dutch Classicism in Seventeenth-Century
Painting. Edited by Albert Blankert. Exh. cat. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen;Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut. Rotterdam, 1999, 116–43.
Dirkse, Paul. “Pieter de Grebber: Haarlems schilder tussen begijnen, kloppen en pastors.”
In Begijnen, pastoors en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw. Leiden, 2001,116–27.
Van Eck, Xander. “Resuscitating a Languishing Bishopric: Pieter de Grebber and theHaarlem Chapter.” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 52 (2004): 371–78.
Van Thiel-Stroman, Irene. “Pieter Fransz de Grebber.” In Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850:
The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum. Edited by Pieter Biesboer and Neeltje Köhler,
168–72. Ghent, 2006.
Van Eck, Xander. “The Haarlem Painters and Their Patrons.” In Clandestine Splendor:
Paintings for the Catholic Church in the Dutch Republic. Zwolle, 2007, 81–109.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection