Background
According to Houbraken he became a painter against the wishes of his father, the chemist Johann Rudolph Glauber (1604–1670), and became a pupil of Nicolaes Berchem on his own, living with Gerrit van Uylenburgh and working on copies of Italianate landscapes for a growing market of connaisseurs in Amsterdam. After the death of his father, he travelled with his brother Johannes Gottlieb Glauber and the two brothers Van Doren by boat to Paris, where he stayed a year painting for Mr. Picart, an art dealer on the Pont Neuf who was a flower painter from the Low Countries.
Career
Then he travelled to Lyon, where he stayed for two years painting for Adriaen van der Kabel. After 6 months in Rome he joined the Bentvueghels with the nickname Coridon, but since he knew that name had already been given to Van der Cabel, they changed it to Polidoor (after the landscape painter Polidoro da Caravaggio). According to Houbraken another painter who didn"t want to become a member after receiving an invitation received the epithet Platluizenbaard or lice-beard.
After that they travelled to Venice, where they stayed two years.
They finally left Italy in 1679 and went north to Hamburg, where they lived until 1684 except for a short stay in Copenhagen when Johannes went to work for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, Count of Laurvig on decorations fot Charlottenborg Palace. Houbraken also mentions the house of Jacob de Flines on Herengracht 132, which Glauber helped decorate along with De Lairesse and Frederick de Moucheron.
That house burned in 2008, but the wall paintings had been removed in 1910 and are located today in Beeckestijn. A ceiling decoration that Glauber made for Herengracht 446 (home of Andries de Graeff) was sold at auction in 1903 and is installed today at the Peace Palace in the Hague.
Houbraken also mentioned decorations for gentlemen in Rotterdam "in the style of De Lairesse".
Glauber married the sister of the architect Steven Vennecool and at the time Houbraken was writing, he lived in the Proveniershuis in Schoonhoven.
Membership
Bentvueghels; Confrerie Pictura]
According to the RKD Glauber was the brother of the painter Diana Glauber and settled in the Hague, where he became a member of the Confrerie Pictura in 1687.