Skip to Main Content

Christoffel Pierson

Dutch, 1631 - 1714

Copy-and-paste citation text:

Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Christoffel Pierson,” NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/constituent/6319 (accessed December 14, 2024).

Export as PDF


Export from an object page includes entry, notes, images, and all menu items except overview and related contents.
Export from an artist page includes image if available, biography, notes, and bibliography.
Note: Exhibition history, provenance, and bibliography are subject to change as new information becomes available.

PDF  

Related Content

  • Sort by:
  • Results layout:
Show  results per page

Biography

Christoffel Pierson was born in The Hague on May 19, 1631, the son of Paulus Pierson, a soldier, and Anneke Abrahams.[1] According to Houbraken, he came from a “good family” and was educated in Latin, French, and the art of drawing.[2] He received his artistic training with Bartholomeus Meyburg (1625–1708/1709), from whom he learned portrait and history painting. In 1652, after his period of training, he moved to Schiedam, where he married Maria Willems. In the following year he went with Meyburg to Germany, where Pierson’s portrait skills were admired by Queen Christina of Sweden, who asked him to work for her.

Pierson declined the Queen’s offer so that he could return to Schiedam to be with his wife and young daughter. In the following year, the young couple moved to Gouda, where they lived until Maria’s death in 1679. Pierson was lieutenant in the Gouda militia company between 1673 and 1676, and served as regent in the house of correction between 1674 and 1680. During these years Pierson was active not only as a portraitist and history and still-life painter but also as a poet, playwright, and translator of Virgil and Racine. In 1674, he received a commission to make copies of seven stained-glass windows from the Sint Janskerk in Gouda.

In 1680, Pierson returned to Schiedam, where he married Joppina Hodenpijl that same year. As he had in Gouda, Pierson served as a member of the town’s militia company. Curiously, he did not join the Schiedam artist’s guild until 1685, even though he had continued to paint during the five years since his arrival. Joppina died in 1687, and three years later Pierson married again, this time to Maria Paeuw. In 1692 Pierson moved back to Gouda, where in 1696 the church fathers commissioned him to oversee the stained-glass windows at the Sint Janskerk. In 1710 Pierson once again became a widower, and, in 1714, at the age of 83, he was buried in the Sint Janskerk.

 

 

[1] This biographical information is taken from the account of J. M. M. Jansen in Josine Bokhoven, Leven en werk van Christoffel Pierson (1631–1714): "den kloeken rijmer en konstrijken schilder" (Schiedam, 1986), For further biographical information, see Frederik Daniel Otto Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols. (Rotterdam, 1884–1887), 6:71–74.

[2] Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1976), 2:259.

 

 

 

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,  Lara Yeager-Crasselt

April 24, 2014

Artist Bibliography

1753
Houbraken, Arnold. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen. 3 vols. in 1. The Hague, 1753 (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976): 2:260-262.
1877
Obreen, Frederik D.O., ed. Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis. 7 vols. Rotterdam, 1877-1890: 6(1884):71-74.
1986
Bokhoven, Josine. Leven en Werk van Christoffel Pierson (1631-1714): "Den Kloeken Rijmer en Konstrijken Schilder." Schiedam, 1986.

Works of Art

  • Filters:
  • Sort by:
  • Results layout:

Limit to works on view

Limit to works with online images

Limit to works of classification:

Limit to works of artist nationalities:

Limit to works belonging to editions:

Limit to works created between:

Limit to works containing styles:

Limit to works containing photographic processes:

Find works executed in:


Find works containing subject terms:


Find works with an alternate reference number (for example, Key Set number) containing:


Show  results per page
The image compare list is empty.