Adriaen van de Venne

Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne (1589, Delft – Nov 12 1662, The Hague) was a versatile Dutch Baroque painter of allegories, genre subjects and portraits, as well as a miniaturist, book-illustrator and designer of political satires and a versifier.

He went to Leiden to learn to paint, [Cornelis de Bie, "Het gulden cabinet" 1661;] then lived in Middelburg from 1614 and was influenced by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Elder. His skeptical commentary on the "fishers of men", Catholic and Protestant alike, of 1614 ("illustration") is at the Rijksmuseum; the ironic allegory of the ceasefire in effect since 1609, the "Twelve Years' Truce", is at the Musée du Louvre. The influence of Jan Brueghel the Elder is particularly evident. [Noted, for instance, by Martin Royalton-Kisch, reviewing "Adriaen Pietersz. Van de Venne (1589-1662), de grisailles met spreukbanden" by Annelies Plokker (Leuven 1982), in "The Burlington Magazine" 128, No. 995 (February 1986:152.]

From 1620 until his death van de Venne executed many more grisailles of genre subjects, featuring peasants, beggars, thieves and fools ("illustration, left") and illustrating current proverbs and sayings, as jokes and moral anecdotes, with a harsh and critical eye. [Noted in the preface by K. Porteman to Annelies Plokker, "Adriaen Pietersz. Van de Venne (1589-1662), de grisailles met spreukbanden" (1984.] Van de Venne also worked as a book illustrator and print designer. Van de Venne moved to The Hague and joined the Guild of Saint Luke in 1625, taking the position of dean in 1637. He was a founding member of "Pictura", a group bent on improving the independent status and social position of the artist in Dutch society.

His self-portrait was engraved by Wenceslas Hollar.

Notes

*Bol, Laurens J., series of articles on van de Venne in "Tableau", 1982-84.

External links

* [http://wwar.com/masters/v/venne-adriaen_van_de.html Adriaen Van De Venne]
* [http://www.rkd.nl/rkddb/dispatcher.aspx?action=search&database=ChoiceArtists&search=priref=79989 Adriaen van de Venne] at the Netherlands Institute for Art History