Rombout Verhulst

Rombout Verhulst (15 January 1624 – buried 27 November 1698) was a Flemish sculptor and draughtsman who spent most of his career in the Dutch Republic. There he helped introduce the Baroque style in sculpture while becoming the leading sculptor of marble monuments, including funerary monuments, garden figures and portraits.

Rombout Verhulst was born in Mechelen, where he studied with the sculptors Rombout Verstappen en Frans van Loo and possibly also Lucas Faydherbe. It is assumed that between 1646 and 1654 he made a trip to Italy.

In 1646 he moved to Amsterdam, where he worked under the Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus on the decoration of the new town hall. His independent position among Quellinus' co-workers is apparent from the fact that he was the only one to individually sign works in this project. At the Amsterdam town hall, he is known to have executed the reliefs of Venus, Fidelity and Silence for the galleries and terracotta studies for the bronze doors of the Vierschaar. During the 1660s, Verhulst was able to rely on a network of private patrons in which the van Reygersbergh family played a pivotal role. In 1663 Verhulst completed a funeral monument for Maria van Reygersbergh in the church of Katwijk-Binnen. This was the first private commission for this type of work in the second half of the 17th century. His patronage shifted gradually from Amsterdam to The Hague.

Around 1658 he moved to Leiden where he produced various sculptures for urban buildings and for tomb monuments. In 1663 he established himself in the Hague, where in 1668 he became a member of a guild. He died, aged 74, in The Hague.

He was the teacher of Jan Blommendael and Jan Ebbelaer.

Rombout Verhulst is best known for his many tomb monuments, but he made also portrait busts, garden sculptures and small-scale works in ivory.

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