KONINCK, Philips (Amsterdam, 1619 – Amsterdam, 1688)
The youngest of six brothers, Philips Koninck (Koning, Coningh, Coninck, and other spellings) was born in Amsterdam on 5 November 1619. His father, Aert de Koninck, was a goldsmith, and his brother, Jacob Koninck (1614/15–after 1690), and cousin, Salomon de Koninck (1609–1656), were painters. Jacob served as Philips’ first teacher in Rotterdam; on 2 January 1640 he received payment of thirty guilders for instructing Philips over a period of half a year. Philips had probably begun this instruction around 1637. By 1639, he had painted portraits and head studies as well as executed figure drawings, since works of these descriptions were mentioned in his father’s inventory of that year. In 1640 he married Cornelia Furnerius, daughter of a surgeon and organist and sister of the artist Abraham Furnerius (c. 1628–1654), who was also a Rembrandt pupil and whose drawings closely resemble those of Philips. According to Houbraken, Koninck studied with Rembrandt. If this is indeed the case, the period of tutelage probably took place following Koninck’s move to Amsterdam in 1641. The following year Koninck’s young wife died.
Koninck is not mentioned again in documents until 1653 in Amsterdam, although his works from the latter half of the 1640s and early 1650s show the strong influence of Rembrandt and Hercules Segers. His testimony in 1658–1659 that he had received a pearl necklace about seven years earlier from Rembrandt proves that the two artists had met at the latest by around 1651. ln several disputes over the authenticity of paintings in Amsterdam, Koninck served as expert. The fact that his portrait was sought by the Grand Duke of Tuscany for the latter’s gallery of artists’ self–portraits is proof of his international reputation. His art was praised by the poets Jan de Vos and Vondel, whose portrait Koninck drew and painted in 1665 (Amsterdam, Museum Amsterlkring). Vondel, who also admired Jan Lievens and Juriaen Ovens, spoke only of Koninck’s history paintings, not of his landscapes. In 1657 Koninck was remarried, to Margaretha van Rijn, on whose portrait by the artist (now lost) Vondel composed a poem. The following year Koninck was living on the Prinsengracht, in 1669 and 1672 on the Leidsegracht, while at his death in 1688 he was a resident of the Reguliersgracht. Several documents indicate that later in life Koninck was the owner of the inland shipping line between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. His latest dated landscapes are of 1676 (Amsterdam, Rijkmuseum, inv. no. A 206), and he seems to have given up painting entirely thereafter; Gerson could date no paintings to the 1680s.
A painter and draughtsman of portraits, history subjects, low–life genre themes, and panoramic landscapes, Koninck excelled only at the last mentioned. Most of his panoramas are imaginary but evoke the landscape of Gelderland. He had developed his own distinctive style by the early 1650s. By the later 1660s his subjects became more idyllic, often populated by elegant or pastoral figures. Nearly three hundred drawings and eight landscape etchings are known by the artist.
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