Cornelis van der Voort

1576 – 1624

Flemish painter. He studied with the Amsterdam painter Cornelis Ketel. In 1606 his brother Hans, a tailor, bought three parcels in Amsterdam on which two houses were built. Hans moved in the one on the corner, and Cornelis in the one next to it. Only a few years later Cornelis sold the house; in 1639 Rembrandt and his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh moved in. Today it is the Rembrandt House Museum. Van der Voort painted full-length portraits in contemporary interiors, his work was in great demand and held in high esteem. He was among the most important portrait painters in Amsterdam until his untimely death at the age of 48 in 1624. Only in the past century has his influence on early Dutch portraiture been recognized due to the fact that many of his works had been previously given to contemporaries such as Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy and Thomas de Keyser. A number of successful artists studied under van der Voort in Amsterdam, notably David Bailly, Thomas de Keyser and Willem Cornelisz. Duyster. He had an influence on the early portraits of Rembrandt.

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