- Filters:
- Sort by:
- Results layout:
Dutch, 1631/1632 - 1664
Bega, Cornelis Pietersz
Copy-and-paste citation text:
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Cornelis Bega,” NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/constituent/3486 (accessed March 31, 2023).
Export as PDF
Version | Link |
---|---|
Jun 14, 2015 Version |
Documents indicate that Cornelis Pietersz Bega was born in either 1631 or 1632 in Haarlem.[1] His grandfather was the renowned history painter
Dutch artist biographer Arnold Houbraken wrote that Bega was the “first and best pupil” of
Early in his career, Bega painted in a loose, rough style similar to Ostade, although his paintings differ from Ostade’s in that they exhibit a greater degree of monumentality and occasionally include classical elements and figures derived from live models. Bega may have been influenced by the classicizing tradition in Haarlem painting, which he would have known both from the extensive art collection he inherited from his grandfather, as well as from contemporary Haarlem painters who had trained there, such as Salomon (1597–1664) and
[1] A notarized document from April 16, 1650 states that Bega was 18 years old; see Neeltje Köhler and Pieter Biesboer, Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, (Ghent, 2006), 100–101.
[2] Van der Vinne documented this trip, and Bega’s participation in it, in an illustrated diary now in the Haarlem Gemeentearchief (Stell. 21D/171–2 and Stell. 21D/231).
[3] Hessel Miedema, De archiefsbescheiden van het St. Lukasgilde te Haarlem 1497-1789, 2 vols., (Alphen aan de Rijn, 1980), 2:638.
[4] Houbraken tells a touching, if unverifiable, story of the death of Bega’s sweetheart from the same plague. Bega longed to embrace her while she lay dying, but his mother and the doctor had forbid him to touch her. Instead, Bega held out the handle of a broom to her, kissing one end she girl kissed the other. Alas, this sanitary measure would not save Bega from contracting the same disease; Arnold Houbraken, De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlandtsche Kosntschilders en Schilderessen, 3 in 1 vols., The Hague, 1753. (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976), 1:349–50.
[5] Houbraken 1753, 1:350.
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
June 14, 2015