Career
"Torrentius" is a Latin equivalent of the Beeck surname, literally meaning "brook" or "torrent")
The tortured painter was thrown into prison as a convicted blasphemer until being permitted to leave the country as a political gesture for England"s Charles I, a Beeck admirer. According to the RKD, Torrentius was tried in 1627, but according to Houbraken, who quoted Theodorus Schrevelius, he was tried and placed on the painbench, and thereupon sentenced to 20 years in the Tuchthuis (the Haarlem house of detention), on 25 July 1630. Although he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, King Charles I of England — an admirer of the painter"s works – intervened, and was able to secure his release after two years, hiring Torrentius as Court Painter.
He stayed in England for 12 years, returning to Amsterdam in 1642.
