Cornelis Apostool

Cornelis Apostool
Portrait of Cornelis Apostool (ca. 1816) by Charles Howard Hodges
Born	Cornelis Apostool (1762-08-06)6 August 1762 Amsterdam, Dutch Republic
Died	10 February 1844(1844-02-10) (aged 81) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), French
Education	Hendrik Meijer
Known for	Painting, drawing, engraving

Cornelis Apostool (Dutch pronunciation: [kɔrˈneːlɪs aːpɔsˈtoːl]; 6 August 1762 – 10 February 1844) was a Dutch artist, diplomat, and museum director.

Cornelis Apostool was born on 6 August 1762 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic. His father was Jan Apostool, a Mennonite and a merchant in animal skins and cocoa beans, and his mother was Cornelia de Witte. He was the eleventh of twelve children, six of whom died at a young age.

Apostool studied foreign languages with a French teacher in Delft. He then did an apprenticeship with a salesman in silver and gold in Rotterdam. From 1784 to 1786, he was a pupil of landscape painter Hendrik Meijer at the art academy back in Amsterdam. In 1786, Meijer and Apostool went to England, where Apostool stayed and lived to work as an engraver of aquatints.

He became the Commissary-general of Commerce in London around 1793. After the Batavian Revolution, he negotiated the exchange of prisoners of war for the Batavian Republic in London. In 1796, he returned to his native country.