Pieter de Grebber

Pieter Fransz de Grebber (Haarlem, c. 1600 - Haarlem, 1652 or 1653) was a Dutch painter.

Life

Grebber was the son of Frans Pietersz de Grebber (1573–1643), a painter and embroiderer in Haarlem, and would have been taught painting by his father and by Hendrick Goltzius. He was descended from a Catholic and artistic family (2 of his brothers, and his sister Maria, the mother-in-law of Gabriel Metsu, were known as painters). He was friendly with the priest and musicologist Jan Albertszoon Ban, and had a poem set to music by the Haarlem composer Cornelis Padbrué. In 1618, father and son went to Antwerp and negotiated with Peter Paul Rubens over the sale of his painting "Daniel in the lions pit". It was then handed - via the English ambassador in the Republic, Sir Dudley Carleton - to king Charles I. Pieter got important commissions not only in Haarlem, but also from the stadholder Frederik Hendrik. As such, he worked with on the decoration of the Huis Honselaarsdijk in Naaldwijk and at the Paleis Noordeinde in Huis ten Bosch in the Hague. He painted altar pieces for churches in Flanders and hidden Catholic churches in the Republic. He may also have worked for Danish clients.

Pieter remained single and lived from 1634 until his death at the Haarlem Béguinage.

Work

Besides history paintings, Pieter de Grebber also painted a number of portraits; furthermore many drawings and a few etchings by him have survived. From different influences, such as the Utrecht Caravaggistism, Rubens and also Rembrandt, he came up with a very personal style. He was, together with Salomon de Bray, the forerunner and first peak of the "Haarlem classicism" school, producing paintings characterized by a well-organized clarity and light tints.

In 1649, De Grebber wrote a treatise with the telling title "Regulen welcke by een goet Schilder en Teyckenaar geobserveert en achtervolght moeten werden". In this, he enumerated eleven rules which the a classicist painter should be careful he observed. Although the Classicists did not swear by such rules, these were nevertheless always tightly observed.

ource

*Bijlage Vrij Nederland, september 1999 (Available free of charge in museum Boijmans Van Beuningen during the exhibition "Dutch Classicism - the other face of the Golden Century").