Rest on the Flight into Egypt

1640 · Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge

religious

Poelenburgh's native town was Utrecht, and, like so many Italianate Dutch painters, he studied there with Bloemaert. During his life he achieved great fame, and he attracted a large number of followers who used his polished style for arcadian landscapes populated with the same satyrs and nude nymphs he favoured, although in their works the nymphs are usually more hefty. In Italy he enjoyed the patronage of leading Roman families and the Medici court in Florence.

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About the Artist

Cornelis van Poelenburgh

1594 – 1667

Dutch painter, mainly of landscapes. He studied in Utrecht with Bloemaert and from about 1617 to 1625 was in Rome becoming one of the leading members of the first generation of Dutch painters of Italianate landscapes. His paintings are typically small scale (he often painted on copper) with biblical or mythological figures set in Arcadian landscapes, sometimes scattered with antique remnants. They are strongly influenced by Elsheimer, but cooler in colour than the German artist's work and without his sense of mystery. After returning to Utrecht Poelenburgh enjoyed a career of great success. He was Rubens 's guide when he visited Utrecht in 1627, was popular in aristocratic and even royal circles (Charles I called him to England in 1637), and was imitated until the early 18th century. Sometimes he collaborated with Jan Both, in whose landscapes he painted the figures.

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