Andries van Eertvelt

Andries van Eertvelt (1590, Antwerp – 1652, Antwerp), was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver who was one of the first Flemish artists to specialize in marine art. Several of his pupils also became prominent marine artists.

Andries van Eertvelt was born in Antwerp and baptized in the Antwerp cathedral on 25 March 1590. There is no record of the masters with whom he trained. He was registered as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1609. He married Catherine de Vlieger on 28 November 1615 in the St. Andrew's Church. The couple had two children. His wife died in 1626 or 1627.

After the death of his wife he travelled together with one of his pupils, Matthieu van Plattenberg, to Italy. Van Eertvelt is documented in Genoa from 1628–1630, where he lived with his compatriot Cornelis de Wael, who also practiced marine art, in particular the depiction of sea battles. Cornelis de Wael was a long-term resident of Genoa and arranged work for van Eervelt during his stay there.

In 1630 van Eertvelt returned to Antwerp. In the early 1630s he had a relationship with Susanna April, with whom he had two illegitimate daughters, Susanna and Annemarie (born in 1630 and 1632). On 3 October 1633 he married Elisabeth Boots in the St. James Church in Antwerp. Their son Jan Baptist was baptized in the same church on 11 February 1634.

Van Eertvelt had a very successful career as a marine artists and some of his works were exported to markets in Spain and Portugal. He also had an eager clientele in the Dutch Republic. He was remembered as a "son of the seas" by the Flemish 17th century biographer Cornelis de Bie.Anthony van Dyck painted his portrait and an engraving freely cut after this portrait by Schelte a Bolswert was included in van Dyck’s "Iconography" (Icones Principum Virorum), a collection of portraits of leading personalities of van Dyck’s time. Van Eertvelt also appears to have engaged in diplomatic activity. He took some letters relating to a possible peace treaty between Spain and the Dutch Republic from Balthazar Gerbier, an Anglo-Dutch diplomat residing in Antwerp, to Constantijn Huygens, the secretary to the Prince of Orange, in the Dutch Republic.

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