Pieter Borsseler
Encyclopedia
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...
portrait painter who was prominent in England during the second half of the 17th century.
Borsseler was born in Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
. He was a student of Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert in Antwerp between 1651 and 1654. He eventually returned to Middelburg, but painted between 1665 and 1679 in England. In 1681 he is reported to be in 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 from 1684 and 1687 in Middelburg again.
Borsseler's earliest known dated work is from 1664, but his signature work was his painting of the antiquarian Sir William Dugdale
William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.-Life:...
(1665), which established his distinctive sober and melancholic style. Borsseler also painted the portraits of Dugdale's wife and of Orlando Bridgman that are at Dugdale's seat of Merevale Hall
Merevale Hall
Merevale Hall is a private country house in Merevale, near Atherstone, Warwickshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.The Manor of Merevale was granted in 1540 to Sir Walter Devereux. The Devereux estates were sequestered in 1601 following the attainder and execution of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl...
. Several paintings of the Hoby family are at Bisham Abbey
Bisham Abbey
Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the traditional resting place of many Earls of Salisbury...
, Buckinghamshire, most notably his sensitive picture of the elderly Mrs Peregrine Hoby.
Borsseler also painted the writer Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler (poet)
Samuel Butler was a poet and satirist. Born in Strensham, Worcestershire and baptised 14 February 1613, he is remembered now chiefly for a long satirical burlesque poem on Puritanism entitled Hudibras.-Biography:...
, now in the National Portrait Gallery, and was probably responsible for the posthumous "Chesterfield portrait" of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, which is based on the Chandos portrait
Chandos portrait
The "Chandos" portrait is one of the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare . Believed to have been painted from life between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the engraved portrait of Shakespeare used in the First Folio in 1623. It is named after James...
. His studio may also have painted the anonymous portrait of a woman now in the National Gallery.
Borsseler's style is closest to fellow Anglo-Dutch artist Gerard Soest
Gerard Soest
Gerard Soest , also known as Gerald Soest, was a portrait painter who was active in England during the late 17th century...
, who coincidentally also painted Butler and a posthumous portrait of Shakespeare.