Carel de II Moor

1656 – 1738

Dutch painter and etcher, son of Carel de Moor I (1627-1689), a painter and art dealer. Little known today, even in his native country, yet during his lifetime he was considered one of the greatest Dutch painters. Born in Leiden, he was sent to study drawing with Dou and thereafter, in early 1672, to the atelier of the Amsterdam portraitist Abraham van den Tempel. After van den Tempel's death, the fledgling artist returned to Leiden to study with Frans van Mieris and then, finally, traveled to Dordrecht for further instruction with Godfried Schalcken. In 1683, de Moor joined the Guild of St. Luke in Leiden and eventually held a number of important administrative posts within it. From the outset, de Moor executed genre paintings, and history paintings, but over time portraiture, for which he was in tremendous demand, dominated his output. He became an internationally acclaimed portraitist: the Grand Duke of Tuscany commissioned a self-portrait from him in 1702, and in 1714 he was knighted by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (ruled 1711-40) for his services in this capacity. His son and pupil Carel Isaak de Moor (1695-1751) was also a painter.

View all works →