VAN DER NEER, Aert (Amsterdam, 1603/04 - Amsterdam, 1677)
According to later testimony he gave, Aert van der Neer was probably born in 1603 or 1604 in Amsterdam. Houbraken reports that Van der Neer lived in his youth in Arkel near Gorinchem and was the father of Eglon van der Neer (1634_–1703). He may also have been a steward (majoor) in the service of a family at Gorinchem. Among the leading artists in Gorinchem during Van der Neer’s formative years were Jochem (1601/02–1659) and Raphael Govertsz. Camphuysen (c. 1597/98–1657). Documents and stylistic connections suggest that the latter was Van der Neer’s teacher; on 28 December 1642, Raphael Govertsz Camphuysen was a witness at the baptism of Van der Neer’s daughter Cornelia. Van der Neer married Lysbeth Goverts and around 1632 moved to Amsterdam. His son, the painter Eglon, was born there; Johannes was born in 1637/38 (d. 1665); Pieter was born on 4 March 1640, Cornelia, 28 December 1642, Pieter, 5 July 1648, and Alida, 7 July 1650. On 24 January 1659, and again on 14 June Aert van der Neer was mentioned as a citizen of Amsterdam working as an innkeeper at “de Graeff van Hollant” on the Kalverstraat. Aert and his son Johannes were both wyntappers (taverners) in Amsterdam. On 25 January 1662, he again appeared in a list of innkeepers. On 12 December of the same year he went bankrupt, and an inventory of his belongings was drawn up. His paintings were appraised at relatively low values, mostly five guilders and less. At the end of his life he lived in impoverished conditions. His address was given as the Kerkstraat near the Leidsegracht when he died in Amsterdam on 9 November 1677.
The artist’s earliest dated painting is a genre scene of 1632 (Prague, Národní Galerie); his earliest landscape is of 1633. A painter of winter scenes and moonlight and twilight landscapes, Van der Neer developed into one of the most important landscapists of his age. His early landscapes are influenced by the Camphuysen brothers, and the winter landscapes show an interest in Hendrick Avercamp and Esaias van de Velde.
Peter C. Sutton
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