Top 10 Amazing Facts about Hendrick ter Brugghen

Hendrick ter Brugghen – The Merry Drinker painting. Photo outsourced from Wikimedia.

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Hendrick ter Brugghen

Hendrick Jansz ter Brugghen was a Dutch painter of genre scenes and religious subjects. His paintings have a strong dramatic use of light and shadow and emotionally charged subjects. He was among the Dutch followers of Caravaggio – the so-called Utrecht Caravaggisti.

Figures of drinkers or musicians were one of his favorite subjects. Furthermore, he also produced large-scale religious images and group portraits. His works include The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John (c. 1625) and The Denial of St. Peter.

Here are top 10 amazing facts about Hendrick ter Brugghen

1. Hendrick ter Brugghen Was Born in 1588

Hendrick’s father, Jan Egbertsz ter Brugghen, from Overijssel, had moved to Utrecht, where he was appointed secretary to the Court of Utrecht by the Prince of Orange, William the Silent and he had been married to Sophia Dirck.

In 1588, his father became bailiff to the Provincial Council of Holland in The Hague, where Hendrick was born.

2. Hendrick Was one of The Main Followers of Caravaggio

A portrait of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Photo by milano.it- Wikimedia

Hendrick was one of the Dutch followers of Caravaggio. Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome. Hendrick extensively studied Caravaggio’s work because his work had caused quite a sensation in Italy.

Caravaggio’s paintings were characterized by bold tenebroso technique-the contrast produced by clear, bright surfaces alongside somber, dark sections. However, for the social realism of the subjects, sometimes charming, sometimes shocking or downright vulgar.

Read more on Top 10 astonishing facts about Caravaggio

3. Hendrick Was Apprenticed to Abraham Bloemaert

To learn better painting techniques, he began to study painting at the age of thirteen in the studio of Abraham. Abraham Bloemaert was a Dutch painter and printmaker who used etching and engraving. Abraham mostly painted history subjects and some landscapes.

4. He Was a Famous Dutch Painter

Three Backgammon Players from the circle of Hendrick ter Brugghen Centraal Museum. Photo Outsourced from Wikimedia

Hendrick was a famous painter who became famous for his exceptional painting techniques. When he returned to Utrecht, he worked with Gerard van Honthorst, another Dutch Caravaggisti.

His favorite subjects were half-length figures of drinkers or musicians, but he also produced larger-scale religious images and group portraits. Hendrick carried with him Caravaggio’s influence, and his painting have a strong dramatic use of light and shadow in addition to emotionally charged subjects.

Subsequently, his treatment of religious subjects can be seen reflected in the work of Rembrandt and elements of his style can also be identified in the paintings of Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer. Peter Paul Rubens described his work as “above that of all the other Utrecht artists.” 

Discover 10 Most Famous Dutch Painters of All Time

5. In 1625, He Painted The crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John’s Painting

Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John is an oil painting by Hendrick ter Brugghen; it’s now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was an altarpiece for a Catholic schuilkerk, a church in the attic in the Calvinist Dutch United Provinces, probably Utrecht.

6. Hendrick’s Son Sought to Rehabilitate His Father’s Reputation

In the early 18th century, his son, Richard ter Brugghen, sought to rehabilitate his father’s reputation as a painter. He secured a letter dated April 15, 1707, from Adriaen van der Werff in Rotterdam, supporting his appreciation of Hendrick’s work.

On August 5, 1707, Richard handed over the government council of Deventer with four paintings of the Evangelists to be hung in the Town Hall as a lasting memorial to his father.

An engraving commissioned by Richard ter Brugghen from Pieter Bodart based on an earlier drawing by Gerard Hoet was put in 1708. It shows an idealized portrait of Hendrick, the family coat of arms and a printed caption.

The caption translated from the Dutch as: “Born in Overijsel in 1588, travelled from Utrecht to Rome, and ten years later returned to Utrecht, married there, lived there interruptedly, and died at the age of 42 on 1st Nov. 1629; he was a great and famous history painter from life, painting life-size figures in the Italian manner, so very superior to all others that the famous P. P. Rubens on travelling through the Netherlands declared on coming to Utrecht that he had found only one painter, namely Henricus ter Brugghen. G. Hoet del. P. Bodart, fec.”

7. Hendrick Painted in the Studio of Gerard van Honthorst

The Adoration of the Kings. Photo outsourced from Wikimedia

In the spring of 1607, Hendrick was thought to have been in Italy, and this would certainly mean that he never met Caravaggio in Rome because the artist had fled Rome on a murder charge in 1606.

In 1614, Hendrick spent the summer in Milan, after a few months, in the company of three other Utrecht painters. He embarked on a journey with Gotthard Pass arriving in Utrecht at the end of the year.

On April 1, 1615, Hendrick and Thyman van Galen were witnesses before the court in Utrecht and in 1616, he enrolled as a master painter in the Guild of Saint Luke. After arriving in Utrecht, he worked with Gerard van Honthorst’s studio.

Honthorst and Hendrick became known as the Caravaggisti because they adopted Caravaggio’s strong sense of light with a dramatic contrast between light and dark and focused on emotionally charged subject matter.

8. The Denial of Saint Peter is one of His Famous Paintings

This painting by Hendrick ter Brugghen depicts Saint Peter’s thrice denial of Christ as recounted in all four Gospels. The painting is thought to have been painted after 1625, emphasizing the play of light, its baroque quality and a resolved sensibility.

Also read 30 Most Famous Paintings you have to know about

9. Hendrick Painted His First Genre Pieces in 1621

Three Backgammon Players from the circle of Hendrick ter Brugghen Centraal Museum. Photo Outsourced from Wikimedia

In 1612, he painted his first genre pieces, The Flute and Fife Players, followed by numerous scenes with musicians. ‘The Flute and Fife Players’ and other works painted shortly in 1621 are indebted to Van Baburen, and this certainly showed the two artists operated a joint workshop.

10. Hendrick Died as a Result of a Plague Epidemic

He died on November 1, 1629, and was buried in the Buurkerk. Probably the death was a result of a plague epidemic that was raging in Utrecht in 1629. Hendrick left his wife expecting their eighth child, born in March 1630.

In 1708, Cornelis de Bie described him as one of the “most celebrated and talked about painters of his time,” Today, the artist is regarded as the most gifted of the Dutch Caravaggisti.