Govert van der Leeuw
Encyclopedia
Gabriel, or Govert van der Leeuw (1645–1688), was a Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...

 landscape painter.

Biography

He was the brother of Pieter van der Leeuw, and they learned to paint from their father, the painter Bastiaan Govertsz van der Leeuw (1624–1680), who had been a pupil of Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp
Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp
Jacob Gerritszoon Cuyp was a portrait and landscape painter. He was born and died in Dordrecht, and was the half-brother of Benjamin Gerritsz Cuyp and the father of the much more famous Aelbert Cuyp....

. As a young man he traveled to Amsterdam, where he married the sister of David van der Plas
David van der Plas
-Biography:David van der Plas became famous as a portrait painter, and his most illustrious patron was Cornelis Tromp. In 1684 he married Cornelia van der Gon of Haarlem, the daughter of the castellan of the Oude Doelen, the meeting quarters of the Haarlem schutterij...

. He then set off on a 14-year journey, spending 4 years in Paris and Lyons, 2 years at the Court of Savoy in Turin, a year in Rome, and 7 years in Naples, before returning to Amsterdam. He painted landscapes in the manner of Johann Heinrich Roos
Johann Heinrich Roos
Johann Heinrich Roos was a German Baroque era landscape painter and etcher.-Biography:...

 and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was an Italian Baroque artist, painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his elaborate engravings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le...

. He was planning another journey south, and had stopped to see his mother in Dordrecht on the way, when he unexpectedly died.

According to the RKD, he was registered in the Amsterdam workshop of his cousin, the painter Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem in 1651, and in 1672, he attended the funeral of his nephew, Nicolaes Berchem II, in Paris.
name=RKD>Govert van der Leeuw in the RKD He was influenced not only by Roos and Castiglione, but also by Pieter Mulier II and Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano was an Italian late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain....

. He signed his works 'gvd leeu' or in Italy, 'G De Leone'. The RKD claims he married in 1684, not before he started his journey, as Houbraken claimed.
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