Eglon van der Neer

Eglon van der Neer (1635/36, Amsterdam - May 3 1703, Düsseldorf) was a Dutch painter of historical scenes, portraits and elegant, fashionable people, and later of landscapes.

Life

Van der Neer was probably first taught by his father, Aert van der Neer, and then took lessons from Jacob van Loo, who was then one of the foremost figure painters in Amsterdam. Around 1654 Van der Neer, who probably had just finished his education with Van Loo, traveled to Orange, Vaucluse in the South of France and entered the service of the governor, Friedrich von Dohna. Van der Neer stayed for three or four years in Orange and must returned to Amsterdam by the end of 1658. There he married in February Maria Wagensvelt, the daughter of a wealthy Rotterdam notary. In 1663 Van der Neer and his family moved to Rotterdam, where he would stay until 1680. There Adriaen van der Werff became his student. In 1680 Van der Neer took up his residence at Brussels. There he married that same year the miniature painter Marie Du Chastel. In Brussels Van der Neer established a good relationship with the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, the Marquess of Castanaga.

In 1687 Van der Neer was appointed court painter to the Spanish KingCharles II of Spain. In 1689, when Carlos' first wife died, Van der Neer portrayed one of the new wedding candidates, Maria Anna of Neuburg. In 1695,Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine bought a painting by Van der Neer in Rotterdam, when traveling through the Netherlands. Shortly thereafter the Elector Palatine contacted Van der Neer directly and gave him commissions. In that same year Brussels was bombarded by French troops and Van der Neer started to look for another place to begin a new life. In 1698 Johann Wilhelm offered Van der Neer a position at the court as a painter. The year before Van der Neer had married the painter Adriana Spilberg. Van der Neer thus settled in Düsseldorf, and would remain here for these last years of his life.

During his Amsterdam and Rotterdam period Van der Neer primarily painted genre scenes and portraits that betray a stunning variety of styles. His interior scenes show the influence of Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch, Gabriel Metsu and Frans van Mieris. Van der Neer painted only a handful of mythological and Biblical scenes. The early examples are very similar to his genre scenes and show figures in contemporary interiors. Later, in Brussels and Düsseldorf, Van der Neer situated his historical scenes outdoor, with a landscape setting. In these paintings he followed the example of Adam Elsheimer. His pure landscapes, without figures from literary sources, show various other stylistic influences, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, and Jacques d'Arthois. Most of Van der Neer's paintings are small and his style is highly finished. However, he could equally work on a big scale and then would adjust his manner of painting.

External links

* http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/n/neer/eglon/
* Judith in the National Gallery by Eglon van der Neer [http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG2535]

References

*1911
* P. Hecht, De Hollandse fijnschilders: Van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff, exhibition catalogue Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum
* P. Hecht, ‘Een Van der Neer voor het Rijksmuseum’, Kunstschrift 35 (1991), no. 3, pp. 5,6
* E. Schavemaker, ‘Copy and paste in the Work of Eglon van der Neer: Some Thoughts on Eclecticism’, in E. Mai (ed.), Holland nach Rembrandt. Zur niederländischen Kunst zwischen 1670 und 1750, Cologne 2006, pp. 247-262