page_title: Middelburg
section_title: Notable locals
hierarchical_section_title: Middelburg / Notable locals
caption_attribution_description: English: Drawing of Dutch poet P.C. Boutens (1870-1943) by Jan Toorop (1905)
context_page_description: Middelburg is a city and municipality in the south-western Netherlands serving as the capital of the province of Zeeland. Situated on the central peninsula of the Zeeland province, Midden-Zeeland, it has a population of about 48,000.
  In terms of technology, Middelburg played a role in the Scientific Revolution at the early modern period. The city was historically a center of lens crafting in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. The invention of the microscope and telescope is often credited to Middelburg spectacle-makers in the late 16th century and early 17th century.
context_section_description: Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621) was a still life painter of the Dutch Golden Age who worked most of his life in Middelburg. He had three sons, Johannes Bosschaert (1606/08– 1628/29), Ambrosius Bosschaert II (1609–1645) and Abraham Bosschaert the Younger (1612–1643) who were all Dutch Golden Age painters. 
  The painter Pieter Gaal, (1769–1819) was born, settled and died here, after traveling over Europe to paint
  Another well-known citizen of Middelburg was the admiral and explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who was born in the city in 1659 and died there in 1729. Roggeveen discovered Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the South Pacific Ocean on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1722. Further discoveries on the same journey included islands of the Tuamotu group, now part of French Polynesia.
  Petronella Johanna de Timmerman, scientist and poet, was born here in 1723. In 1774 she was inducted as an honorary member of the academy Kunstliefde Spaart Geen Vlijt. Also, she presented the academy with poems, translated from French plays. She died in Utrecht in 1786.
caption: Pieter Cornelis Boutens, 1905