Anselm van Hulle

Anselm van Hulle or Anselmus van Hulle (name variations: Anselmus Hebbelijnck, Anselmus Hebbelynck, Anselm von Hulle, Anselmus von Hulle) (Gent, 1601 - 1674/1694) was a Flemish painter mainly of portraits whose works were highly prized at the Northern European Courts.

Anselm van Hulle was baptized in the St. Bavo Church in Gent on 23 July 1601. He was the son of Egidius van Hulle. He may have been a pupil of Gaspar de Crayer, a leading Baroque painter from Antwerp working mainly in Brussels. A training with such a prominent painter was relatively expensive. Van Hulle came from a wealthy family owning various lands and annuities, which he had partially inherited, and was thus able to afford the cost of such a training should it in effect have taken place.

Van Hulle became a master in the Guild of St. Luke of Gent in 1620. He probably made a trip to Italy in 1631 but was back in Gent in the same year. He married on 14 December 1631 with Livina of Thuyne. The couple had four children, who were all baptized in the St. Bavo Church. It is not clear when he moved to the Dutch Republic. He became court painter to the Dutch stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Van Hulle made various portraits of persons of the Orange dynasty. The Prince sent him in 1645 or 1646 to Münster to make portraits of the delegates who attended the peace negotiations for the Peace of Münster. Van Hulle established a large workshop in Münster to make the portraits and copies of the same. The Flemish painter Jean-Baptist Floris was likely initially an employee of van Hulle’s workshop and later started working for his own account by making portraits mostly based on van Hulle's work. Floris is recorded as having received a commission for 34 portrait paintings of the delegates for the Münster Town Council at a price of ten thalers. Van Hulle typically charged 10 ducats (20 thalers) for a bust painted by himself.

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