Martin Verstappen

1773 – 1853

Belgian painter and lithographer. He was a landscape painter, active in Rome from 1805. He trained at the Antwerp Academy and in the studios of Petrus Johannes van Regemorter (1755-1830), Hendrik Aarnout Myin (1760-1826) and Balthazar Paul Ommeganck. He then travelled to Germany to fine-tune his skills; there, he discovered and studied the works of Claude Lorrain and Jacob van Ruisdael, both of which had a long-term influence on the way he painted. Verstappen settled in Rome in 1805, where he remained until the end of his life. He exhibited two paintings at the Salon of 1810, and won a gold medal. He was admitted to the Academy of Saint Luke in 1813 as an academician of merit. In 1819, he married Maria Angela Pacetti, daughter of the artist Vincenzo Pacetti. Verstappen had a studio in the house of the Pacetti in Rome. Respected by his contemporaries, he counted members of the Italian aristocracy among his clients, as well as the King of Naples, Ludwig of Bavaria, and Joséphine de Beauharnais.

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