Background
Van Hoogstraten was born in Dordrecht, Netherlands, on August 2, 1627. He was the son of Dirk van Hoogstraten and Mayken de Koning. He had seven siblings.
Van Hoogstraten was born in Dordrecht, Netherlands, on August 2, 1627. He was the son of Dirk van Hoogstraten and Mayken de Koning. He had seven siblings.
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten was first trained by his father. Shortly after his father's death in December 1640, he went to Amsterdam and received further training in the studio of Rembrandt. He studied together with Carel Fabritius there.
Van Hoogstraten lived for a short period of time in Vienna, Rome and London but later he settled in his native town of Dordrecht. The earliest evidence of Van Hoogstraten’s return to Dordrecht is a poem he wrote about the physician Bernardus Pandelaert dated 19 January 1648. Hoogstraten’s artworks were scarce. However, a great number of them has been preserved to demonstrate that he tried to imitate different styles at different times. For instance, in a portrait of 1645 in the Lichtenstein collection at Vienna he imitated Rembrandt's style.
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten is best known for his perspectives like A Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House and his architectural perspective interiors such as The Slippers, View Down the Corridor. In 1657 he painted two group portraits, including one (now lost) of the Broederschap der Romeynen, and one of his fellow masters of the Mint. This was followed in 1674 by a second portrait of the officers and masters of the Mint.
A notable representative of Dutch Realist genre painting, alongside Willem Kalf, Gabriel Metsu and Pieter de Hooch, van Hoogstraten also painted trompe l'oeil, a form of illusionist painting, and also portraits and still-lifes. Although Van Hoogstraten’s fame as a painter rests primarily on this genre, it was only a small part of his entire oeuvre.
In 1671 Van Hoogstraten purchased a house in Dordrecht. A writer and poet, as well as a painter, he also held the post of a provost of the Dutch mint in 1673. The artist spent his later years writing an important treatise on painting, Introduction to the High School of the Art of Painting. It was published in 1678, the year of his death. It includes memoirs of his stay in Rembrandt's studio and is a valuable source of information about Rembrandt's views on painting. In his work, he criticized Rembrandt for his excessive naturalism.
Christ and the Women of Jerusalem
Trompe L'eil Still Life
The Annunciation
The Anemic Lady
Mattheus Van Den Broucke, Councillor of the Indies
Old Man Looking Through a Window
Johan Cornelisz Vijgeboom and His Wife
Tobias's Farewell to His Parents
Adoration by the Shepherds
Self Portrait with a Vanitas Still Life
The Innere Burgplatz in Vienna
Trompe L'oeil Letter Board
A Peepshow with Views of the Interior of a Dutch House
Vanitas Still Life with Thinking Young Man
Resurrection of Christ
Self-portrait with Turban
A Young Man Reaching for His Cap
Tromp L'oeil Still Life
View of An Interior (also Known as The Slippers)
Trompe L'oeil Still Life. Letter Rack with Writing Implements
Two Women by a Cradle
Self Portrait
Self Portrait
A Perspective View of the Courtyard of a House
View of a Corridor (also Known as A View Through a House)
Portrait of a Gentleman
Boy Looking Through the Window
Mother with a Child in a Wicker Cradle
Trompe L'Oeil of a Framed Necessary Board
Perspective View with a Woman Reading a Letter
In April 1648, Samuel van Hoogstraten was baptized into the Mennonite community in Dordrecht. In January 1657, he together with his wife joined the Dutch Reformed Church.
Van Hoogstraten was a member of the Bentveugels ("Birds of a Feather"), an association of Netherlandish artists. In Dordrecht in 1656, he joined the Broederschap der Romeynen. He became a member of Pictura, the artists’ confraternity in the Hague, in January 1668.
Van Hoogstraten married Sara Balen in 1656. She was a niece of the town historian Matthijs Balen, who would later write Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht (1677) and for which Samuel van Hoogstraten would design the prints.