Dirk Rafelsz Camphuysen was a Dutch painter, poet and theologian.
Background
According to Houbraken, he was the son of a respected surgeon at Gorcum. His mother was a mennonite whose father Hans van Mazeik was beheaded for his beliefs. His mother died when young Dirk was eight, and his father followed her soon after into the grave.
His older brother, who took over his father"s surgical business, sent young Dirk to learn drawing from the painter Dirck Govertsz, who later also taught his son Govert and his son"s contemporary Hendrik Verschuring.
Career
Camphuysen manifested great artistic talent. He practised art quite successfully until the age of eighteen, whereupon he started to study languages. Houbraken saw some of his paintings and drawings and said he did well at landscapes with farmsheds and animals.
Houbraken also mentions maneschyn or moonlight scenes.
At Leiden, Camphuysen was recommended as a tutor to the "Heer van Langerak", so deserted the pursuit of art, to become a private tutor and secretary in Nieuwpoort (Netherlands), where he studied theology in his free time. After substituting a few times for pastor Taurinus in the Domkerk in Utrecht (city), he was appointed minister of Vleuten by his boss, "Heer van Langerak".
Another painter-minister Lambert Jacobsz told him to leave the ministry and take up safer pursuits. He apparently took up poetry rather than painting, since so few of his paintings survive today.
Houbraken claimed to have taken his information from Life of Dirk Rafelsz.
Kamphuizen, a pamphlet that was published four times. First in Rotterdam, by Barent Bos, 1683, then in Amsterdam, by January Rieuwertsz, 1699 (this is the version Houbraken read). Third in Amsterdam, by Marten Schagen, 1723, and lastly in Amsterdam, by Petrus Conradi, 1775.
The close of his life was spent at Dokkum.
