Claes Janszoon Visscher (1587 – 19 June 1652) was a Flemish draughtsman

Drawing

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

, engraver, printmaker and publisher.

Biography

Visscher, who was born and died in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, was also known as Nicolas Joannes Piscator or Nicolas Joannis Visscher II, after his father who lived ca. 1550-1612. He learned the art of etching and printing from his father, and helped grow the family printing and mapmaking business to one of the largest in his time. It was a family business; Nicolaes Visscher I (1618-1679), and Nicolaes Visscher II (1649-1702) were also mapmakers in Amsterdam on the Kalverstraat. The times were with the Visschers for other reasons; due to the Protestant reformation, the older bibles with their "Roman Catholic" illustrations were seen as outdated and apocryphal, but to liven up the new Protestant bibles for the less well-read clergy, the Visschers produced illustrated maps and even landscapes of the places in the bible. This became a very successful family business, with collaboration with many respected draughtsmen of the day. A new translation of the bible

Statenvertaling

The Statenvertaling or Statenbijbel is the first Bible translation from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages to the Dutch language, ordered by the government of the Protestant Dutch Republic first published in 1637.The first complete Dutch Bible was printed in Antwerp in 1526 by Jacob...

 was underway in the Netherlands, and until then, the new German translation done by Johannes Piscator

Johannes Piscator

Johannes Piscator was a German Reformed theologian, known as a Bible translator and textbook writer.He was a prolific writer, and initially moved around as he held a number of positions...

, published in 1602-1604, was translated into Dutch. Though probably not a relative, his bible translation was accepted by the Dutch Staten-General in 1602, which only lent more publicity and authenticity to the "Fisher" name.

The trademark of the Visschers was a fisherman, after their name (thus the Latin nickname Piscator). A small fisherman would be strategically placed somewhere near water. If the subject was a landscape without a stream or pond, then often a figure walking with a fishing rod can be seen. Their map plates were reused for a century by other printers who unknowingly copied the entire plates, including the tell-tale fishermen. Observant scholars are thus able to trace the provenance of bibles, maps, and landscapes from these signs.

Aside from bibles, Claes Visscher II primarily etched and published landscapes, portraits and maps. He etched over 200 plates and his maps included elaborate original borders. Visscher died in 1652. He was a publisher of prints by Esaias van de Velde

Esaias van de Velde

Esaias van de Velde was a Dutch landscape painter.-Biography:Born in Amsterdam, where his Flemish father Hans had fled as a Protestant in 1585, he probably studied under his father and Gillis van Coninxloo, a landscape painter from Antwerp and a follower of Pieter Brueghel the Elder...

, and David Vinckboons

David Vinckboons

David Vinckboons was a Dutch Golden Age painter of Flemish origin.-Biography:Vinckboons was one of the most prolific and popular painters and print designers in the Netherlands...

, and was a big influence on Roelant Roghman

Roelant Roghman

Roelant Roghman was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver.-Biography:Roghman was born in Amsterdam, the son of the engraver Henrick Lambertsz Roghman and Maria Jacobs Savery. His mother was a daughter of the Savery family, and Roghman became a student of his namesake and great-uncle, Roelant...

and on his sister Geertruyd.