Pieter de Grebber(Haarlem ca. 1603 – 1652/53
Haarlem)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Pieter de Grebber." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
New York, 2017.
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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 inHaarlem, 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] DeGrebber became the leading representative of a style of history painting now known as Haarlem
Classicism, which was inspired by the classicizing Baroque style that Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) had
introduced into Southern Netherlandish painting. Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, whose taste reflected that ofother European rulers, favored this classicism. This may explain why he gave De Grebber majorcommissions for his royal palaces of Honselaarsdijk (1638), Noordeinde (1646), and Huis ten Bosch(1648–50) from the late 1630s on, just as the Catholic community in Haarlem was losing momentum andlocal patronage was dwindling.[2]Pieter de Grebber was born in Haarlem around 1603, the eldest son of the devout Catholic history andportrait painter Frans Pietersz de Grebber (1572/73–1649) and Hillegart van Lijnhoven. His sister Maria,
whose daughter would later marry Gabriel Metsu (1629–67), and his brother Albert also became painters;
another brother, Maurits, 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 hisfather.”[4] According to Schrevelius, he went on to study with the renowned history painter, draughtsman© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter de GrebberPage 2 of 5and engraver Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), and with success, “for this Pieter de Grebber is as skilled indevising inventions as neat in painting, and so deserves to be counted among the best painters of ourcentury.”[5]Pieter’s father acted as an intermediary in a transaction between Rubens and the English envoy Sir DudleyCarleton in The Hague in 1618.[6] Later that year, Pieter accompanied his father to Antwerp, where hebecame acquainted with the famed Flemish master whose work he thus saw firsthand. Pieter’s earliest
paintings date from 1622, but he must have already been well known in Haarlem given that SamuelAmpzing had praised the “de Grebbers” in a preliminary version of his famous city chronicle in
1621.[7] Seven years later, in the definitive version of his Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem , Ampzing
again expressed his admiration of Pieter de Grebber as a history painter, mentioning not only his father, butalso his sister Maria, “Now I must mention Grebber and praise the father and son as well as thedaughter.”[8] According to Schrevelius, Pieter worked for some time in Denmark, although such a sojournabroad 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 ordereda tapestry design and a painting illustrating the conferring of the sword on the coat of arms ofHaarlem. Given these official commissions, it is curious that he did not enter the Haarlem Guild of SaintLuke until 1632, and then, 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, a first cousin of Pieter’s father) Philips Angel extolled De Grebber in hisLof der SchilderKonst (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 was also an art
theorist. In 1649 the Haarlem printer Casteleyn published De Grebber’s pamphlet outlining eleven rules ofart, 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

Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter de Grebber
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1. Paul Dirkse, “Pieter de Grebber: Haarlems schilder tussen begijnen, kloppen en pastors,” inPaul Dirkse, 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 andthe Haarlem Chapter,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 52 (2004): 371–78; Xander van Eck, “TheHaarlem Painters and Their Patrons,” Clandestine Splendor: Paintings for the Catholic Churchin 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 and Amalia
van Solms, 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; R.
Meischke, “De grote trap van het huis Honselaarsdijk, 1633–1638,”Nederlands KunsthistorischJaarboek 31 (1980): 86–104; J. G. van Gelder, “De schilders van de Oranjezaal,”Nederlands
Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 2 (1948–49): 151–52, 154; M. van Eikema Hommes, “Pieter deGrebber and the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch. Part I: The Regulen (1649),” Art Matters 3(2005): 20–36; M. van Eikema Hommes and Lidwien Speleers, “Pieter de Grebber and theOranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch. Part II: Variations in Painting Technique,” Art Matters 3 (2005):
37–46.
3. Unless otherwise noted, the biographical information on Pieter de Grebber is taken from Irene
van Thiel-Stroman, “Pieter Fransz de Grebber,” in Neeltje Köhler et al., Painting in Haarlem
1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum (Ghent/Haarlem, 2006), 168–72.
4. “Maer Pieter Grebber heeft sijn Vader Grebber verde over-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 hy
by de beste Schilders onser eeuwe meriteert gestelt te worden.” Theodorus Schrevelius,Harlemias… (Haarlem, 1648), 382.
6. De Grebber met Rubens in June 1612 during his first visit to the Northern Netherlands. R. deSmet, “Een nauwkeurige datering van Rubens’ eerste reis naar Holland in 1612,”Jaarboek van
het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (1977), 199–218. For the transaction, see thebiography of Peter Paul Rubens in this catalogue.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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7. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “Pieter Fransz de Grebber,” in Neeltje Köhler et al., Painting in
Haarlem 1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum (Ghent/Haarlem, 2006), 168,refers to [Samuel Ampzing], Het lof der stadt Haerlem in Hollandt (Haarlem, 1621),unpaginated.
8. “Nu moet ik Grebber noemen / Den Vader, ende Soon en ook de Dochter roemen.” SamuelAmpzing, Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem (Haarlem, 1628; reprint, Amsterdam, 1974),
370.
9. The Acts of Mercy (Matthew 25:31–46), monogrammed and dated 1628, oil on canvas, 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, oil on canvas, Town Hall,Haarlem.
11. “[M]enichfuldighe ondersoeckinge en wonder naeuwe waerneminge.” Philips Angel,Lof derSchilder-Konst (Leiden, 1642; reprint, Utrecht, 1969), 52–53.
12. P.J.J. van Thiel, “De Grebbers regels van de kunst,” Oud Holland 80 (1965): 126–31.

Literature
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980, 2:122.
Van Thiel, P. J. J. “De Grebbers regels van de kunst.” Oud Holland 80 (1965): 126–31.
Van Thiel-Stroman, Irene. “Pieter Fransz de Grebber.” In Pieter Biesboer et al., JudithLeyster: A Dutch Master and Her World. Exh. cat. Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem; Worcester
Art Museum. New Haven, 1993, 220–21.
Sutton, Peter C. “Pieter de Grebber.” In Albert Blankert et al., eds., Dutch Classicism inSeventeenth-Century Painting. 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.” InBegijnen, 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 the© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Pieter de Grebber
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Haarlem Chapter.” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 52 (2004): 371–78.
Van Thiel-Stroman, Irene. “Pieter Fransz de Grebber.” In Neeltje Köhler et al.,Painting inHaarlem 1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum. Ghent/Haarlem, 2006,168–72.
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.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection