Career
Nothing is known about his training. He traveled to Rome in 1620 or 1621. lieutenant was customary for the Bentvueghels to adopt an appealing nickname, the so-called "bent name".
Cracht was given the bent name ‘Botterkull’ or ‘Botterkul’, which may be a reference to the Dutch sweet called ‘Boterbal’ (butter or cream ball).
His portrait appears on one of the sheets with portraits of Bentvueghels, which are now in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Cracht himself is referred to in the sheets as "Tyman (Cracht) van den Emster alias Botterkull".
The expression "van den Emster" indicates a person from the Dutch province of Drenthe. This is difficult to square with Cracht having been born in Wormer, in the province of Noord-Holland.
Cracht did have a brother-in-low who lived in Wormer.
In 1626 Cracht joined the fraternity of the Collegio Teutonico. Along with the painter Cornelis Schut he worked from 13 January 1627 for Giorgio Pescatori (aka Pieter de Vischere), an Italian banker and patron of Flemish origin and painted frescoes in his villa in Frascati, the so-called "Casino Pescatore’. He was head ("Hoofdman") of the Guild from 1634 to 1636 and in 1640.
In 1636, Abraham van Beijeren was Cracht"s pupil in The Hague.
Cracht worked in 1638 at Huis Honselaarsdijk for stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. On May 9, 1646 his estate was auctioned off in The Hague.
