Adriaen van der Werff [SEP] date of birth
Adriaen van der Werff
Adriaen van der Werff (21 January 1659 – 12 November 1722) was an accomplished Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes. His brother, Pieter van der Werff (1661–1722), was his principal pupil and assistant.
Life.
At the age of ten he started to take lessons, two years later moving in with Eglon van der Neer, specializing in clothes and draperie. At the age of seventeen he founded his own studio in Rotterdam where he later became the
the original "Schouwburg" written by his friend Arnold Houbraken, whose 3-volume "Schouburg" was written in order of birth year, ending with Adriaen van der Werff, born in 1659. Just as Houbraken before him, he starts his book with a tribute to his predecessors, most notably Karel van Mander and to Houbraken himself, noting however, that Houbraken included many insulting comments in his sketches that he felt were unnecessary. He starts with the artists that Houbraken left out, choosing for his first subjects two painters from the