National Gallery of Art

Biography

Hendrick Avercamp was born in Amsterdam in a house next to the Nieuwe Kerk, and was baptized in the Oude Kerk on 27 January 1585. In 1586 the family moved to Kampen, where Avercamp's father set up an apothecary's business that continued to be run after his death by his son Lambert. Another son also studied medicine, and the members of this well-educated family were for many years prominent citizens of Kampen.

For his artistic training, Hendrick was sent to Amsterdam to study with the Danish portrait painter Pieter Isaacks (1569-1625). In 1607, King Christiaan IV recalled Isaacks to Denmark, and Avercamp appears among the list of buyers at the auction of his teacher's effects as "de stom tot Pieter Isacqs" [Pieter Isaacks's mute]. Various other records testify to Avercamp's disability: in 1622, a document refers to him as "Hendrick Avercamp de Stomme", and his mother's will, drawn up in 1633, instructs that her unmarried, "mute and miserable" son Hendrick should receive, in addition to his portion of the inheritance, an extra allowance of one hundred guilders a year for life from family capital.

During his apprenticeship in Amsterdam, Avercamp came under the influence of the Flemish painters of mannerist landscapes who were then living in the city, notably Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607) and David Vinckboons (1576-1630/1633). It has been suggested on stylistic grounds that Vinckboons may have been another of Avercamp's teachers, but no documentation of such a relationship exists.

From his earliest works, however--the first dated examples of which come from 1601--Avercamp's style is quite individual, and is most strongly connected not with any Amsterdam trends, but with the work of the minor Kampen artist Gerrit van der Horst (1581/1582-1629). By 28 January 1614 Avercamp was back in Kampen, where he seems to have remained until his death in May 1634. There, in relative isolation from the mainstreams of Dutch art, Avercamp devoted himself almost entirely to the painting of winter scenes, and specifically to depictions of crowds of people engaging in a wide range of activities on frozen rivers.

Avercamp had no important direct followers, although his nephew Barent Avercamp (c. 1612-1679) was his pupil, as were Arent Arentsz. (called Cabel) (1585/1586-1635) and Dirck Hardenstein II (1620-after 1674). [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]

Bibliography

1979

Welcker, Clara J. Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd "De Stoome van Campen" en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679), "Schilders tot Campen". Zwolle, 1933. Rev. ed. D. J. Henbroek-van der Poel. Doornspijk, 1979.

1982

Blankert, Albert, et. al. Hendrick Avercamp, 1584-1634; Barent Avercamp, 1612-1679; Frozen Silence. Exh. cat. Waterman Gallery, Amstersdam; Provenciaal Overijssels Museum, Zwolle. Amsterdam, 1982.

1982

Blankert, Albert. "Hendrik Avercamp als schilder van winters." Tableau 4 (Summer 1982): 604-615.

1985

Wiersma, H. Hendrik Averkamp 1585-1634, de Stomme van Kampen. Kampen, 1985.

1987

Sutton, Peter C. et al. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1987: 254-261.

1992

MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. London, 1992: 3.

1995

Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 9.