RKD STUDIES

Samuel van Hoogstraten received his first artistic training from his father, Dirck van Hoogstraten (1596-1640), who had initially trained as a goldsmith but in his later life was mainly active as a painter and printmaker of narrative scenes. In the early 1620s, Dirck settled in Dordrecht, where he joined the painters’ guild in 1624. Shortly after the birth of his son Samuel in 1627, the family moved to The Hague. Presumably, Samuel was already receiving lessons from the mid 1630s. During the late 1630s, Dirck appears to have studied works by Rembrandt, or copies or derivatives of them, that were circulating in the city. He adopted aspects of Rembrandt’s way of working, especially the treatment of light and colour. This is evident in the Self-portrait, probably painted in the year of his death, 1640, and which roughly follows the etched Self-portrait leaning on a stone sill that Rembrandt had made in 1639 [1].¹

Dirck’s role in Samuel’s early development has remained obscure until now. His stylistic language would have formed a basis for his son’s artistic handwriting. In his paintings, Samuel’s stylized faces, including his penchant for almond-shaped eyes, also seem to have originated in his father’s work. Samuel must also have learned printmaking from him. Dirck left a small oeuvre of biblical prints, executed in a combination of etching with engraving. Samuel must have kept these prints with him, because they also served as examples later in his life.² And that he himself produced etchings even before his stay with Rembrandt is evident from a medical publication that includes several etchings by Samuel’s hand as illustrations.³

We do not know of any paintings by Samuel that predate his tutelage under Rembrandt. Nevertheless, he must have had completed basic training as a painter when he reported to Rembrandt for training in late 1642 or early 1643. Traces of Dirck’s influence can still be seen in one of the paintings Samuel painted during his apprenticeship with Rembrandt. It is the Portrait of a young man with vanitas-still life, dated 1644, which has usually been thought of as a self-portrait but more likely shows Samuel’s brother Jan. Although the painting shows a Rembrandtesque monochrome palette—where Dirck usually used more varied and more intense colours — the flashy, accentuated lighting effect is still very reminiscent of Dirck’s work. The dynamic effect of the curled roll of paper to the right also relates to his compositional approach, as seen in his Virgin and Child with St. Anne in Amsterdam [2]. In a self-portrait from a year later, Samuel can be seen applying a heightened concentration on the figure, in composition and light, resulting in a strong Rembrandtesque effect due to the powerful cohesion and drama created within the composition [3].

1
Dirck van Hoogstraten
Self-portrait of Dirk van Hoogstraten (1595/1596-1640), c. 1634-1640
Private collection

2
Dirck van Hoogstraten
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, 1630 (dated)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-1500

3
Samuel van Hoogstraten
Self-portrait with medallion, dated 1645
Vienna, private collection Liechtenstein - The Princely Collections, inv./cat.nr. GE107