Eglon van der Neer was a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 of historical scenes, portraits and elegant, fashionable people, and later of landscapes.

Life

Van der Neer was born 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...

 and was probably first taught by his father, Aert van der Neer, who married in Amsterdam in 1629, coming from Gorinchem

Gorinchem

Gorinchem , also called Gorkum , is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 21.99 km² of which 3.03 km² is water...

. Eglon had a least five brothers and sisters, who were baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk between 1640 and 1650. He took lessons from Jacob van Loo

Jacob van Loo

Jacob van Loo was a Flemish painter who is considered one of the Dutch Masters of the 17th Century. Van Loo is known for his conversational groupings, his use of a subtle color palette and his nudes. He was the founder of the Van Loo family of painters.- Biography :Van Loo was born in Sluis,...

, who was then one of the foremost figure painters in Amsterdam. Around 1654 Van der Neer, who probably had just finished his education with Van Loo, traveled to Orange, Vaucluse

Orange, Vaucluse

Orange is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It has a primarily agricultural economy...

 in the South of France and entered the service of Friedrich von Dohna (1621–1688), Governor of the Principality of Orange

Principality of Orange

The Principality of Orange was a feudal state in Provence, in the south of modern-day France, on the left bank of the River Rhone north of the city of Avignon....

. Van der Neer stayed for three or four years in Orange and returned to Amsterdam by the end of 1658. There he married in February Maria Wagensvelt, the daughter of a wealthy Rotterdam notary. In 1663 Van der Neer and his family moved to Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

, where Adriaen van der Werff

Adriaen van der Werff

Adriaen van der Werff was an accomplished Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes. His brother, Pieter van der Werff , was his principal pupil and assistant.-Life:...

 became his student. He stayed in Rotterdam until his wife died in 1677. In 1679 he moved to The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 and in 1680 he became a member of the Confrerie Pictura

Confrerie Pictura

The Confrerie Pictura was a more or less academic club of artists founded in 1656 in The Hague, by local art painters, who were unsatisfied by the Guild of Saint Luke there.-History:The guild of St...

 there. Later that year he moved again, taking up his residence at Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, where he married the miniature painter Marie Du Chastel in the following year. She bore him nine children.

Painter for Royalty

In Brussels Van der Neer established a good relationship with the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, the Marquess of Castanaga. In 1687 Van der Neer was appointed court painter

Court painter

A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or noble family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Especially in the late Middle Ages, they were often given the office of valet de chambre...

 to the Spanish King Charles II of Spain

Charles II of Spain

Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...

. In 1689, when Carlos' first wife died, Van der Neer portrayed one of the new wedding candidates, Maria Anna of Neuburg. In 1695, Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine

Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine

Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine was Elector Palatine , Duke Palatine of Neuburg/Danube , Duke of Jülich and Berg , and Duke of Upper Palatinate and Cham...

 bought a painting by Van der Neer in Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

, when traveling through the Netherlands. This painting must have pleased him, because shortly thereafter the Elector Palatine contacted Van der Neer directly and gave him commissions. In that same year Brussels was bombarded by French troops and Van der Neer started to look for another place to begin a new life. The Elector Palatine had been looking for a replacement ever since his last court painter Johannes Spilberg

Johannes Spilberg

Johannes Spilberg was a German Baroque painter, active in Amsterdam during the period known as the Dutch Golden Age.-Life:...

 had died in 1690. Van der Neer's second wife had died in 1692, and he met Spilberg's daughter, herself a qualified painter, Adriana Spilberg. They married in 1697 and in 1698 Johann Wilhelm offered Van der Neer the position at his court as head painter. Van der Neer thus settled in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, and would remain here for these last years of his life.

Legacy

During his Amsterdam and Rotterdam period Van der Neer primarily painted genre scenes and portraits that betray a stunning variety of styles. His interior scenes show the influence of Pieter de Hooch

Pieter de Hooch

Pieter de Hooch was a genre painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style.-Biography:...

, Gerard ter Borch

Gerard ter Borch

Gerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....

, Gabriel Metsu

Gabriel Metsu

Gabriël Metsu was a Dutch painter of history paintings, genre works and portraits.- Life :Metsu was the son of the Flemish painter Jacques Metsu , who lived most of his days at Leiden, and Jacomijntje Garniers, his third wife, whom he married in 1625. Jacomijntje was the widow of a painter with...

 and Frans van Mieris

Frans van Mieris

Frans van Mieris is the name of:* Frans van Mieris, Sr., Dutch painter* Frans van Mieris, Jr., his grandson, Dutch painter...

. Van der Neer painted only a handful of mythological and Biblical scenes. The early examples are very similar to his genre scenes and show figures in contemporary interiors. Later, in Brussels and Düsseldorf, Van der Neer situated his historical scenes outdoor, with a landscape setting. In these paintings he followed the example of Adam Elsheimer

Adam Elsheimer

Adam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light...

. His pure landscapes, without figures from literary sources, show various other stylistic influences, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder

Jan Brueghel the Elder

Jan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from his floral still lifes which were his favored subjects, while the...

, and Jacques d'Arthois

Jacques d'Arthois

Jacques d'Arthois was a Flemish Baroque painter who specialized in landscapes.-Biography:D'Arthois was born in Brussels. He was apprenticed to Jan Mertens on 11 January 1625 and became a master in the Brussels Guild of St. Luke in 1634...

. Most of Van der Neer's paintings are small and his style is highly finished. However, he also could work on a large scale and would then adjust his manner of painting.