Dirck van Delen or Dirck Christiaensz van Delen (c.1605, Heusden - May 16, 1671, Arnemuiden) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialized in architectural painting.
According to the early artist biographer Arnold Houbraken, van Delen was born in Heusden. It is not clear with whom he apprenticed and both Frans Hals and Hendrick Aerts (who also specialized in architectural paintings) have been proposed as his masters. More plausible are studies under Pieter van Bronckhorst and/or Bartholomeus van Bassen in Delft.
Shortly after he was born his parents moved to Breda. He married in Middelburg in 1625. In 1626 he moved to Zeeland and became master of the toll house in Arnemuiden. From that year until his death he was registered in Arnemuiden where he sat on the town council, most of the time as burgomaster. He was a member of the Middelburg Guild of St. Luke from 1639-1665. In 1666 he gave to the Antwerp Chamber of rhetoric Olyftack a painting, which he had made in collaboration with the painter Theodoor Boeyermans. Two years later he became a member of the Olyftack.
HIs pupils included Daniël de Blieck and Hans Jurriaensz van Baden.
He was widowed three times and had at least one son, but none of his children survived him.
- Work
Van Delen's work consists almost entirely of architectural paintings of imaginary palaces and church interiors. His earliest paintings of palace scenes were influenced significantly by the work of Hans Vredeman de Vries and his son Paul Vredeman de Vries. He also painted church interiors, in which he initially showed an influence of the paintings by Hendrick Aerts after the architecture prints of Jan van Londerseel. His church interiors are in style also close to those of Bartholomeus van Bassen. After 1630 van Delen’s style became more exuberant and palace exteriors became his favourite subject. Van Delen’s palette also became lighter and brighter. Around 1640 van Delen produced his most ambitious works, which were more sober in colour. Thereafter his output rapidly declined.
The staffage of his works has at times been attributed to other painters, such as Anthonie Palamedesz and Dirck Hals. There is some doubt about these attributions as van Delen lived in relative isolation and it would not have been easy for him to collaborate with these artists. He probably painted most figures himself and in old inventories only figures by Poelenburch and a certain Gerards are mentioned. Van Delen is believed to have collaborated with the Antwerp painter Gonzales Coques, who painted the staffage, on the painting Interior with figures before a picture collection.
Van Delen had an important influence on succeeding architectural painters in Antwerp.
His works hang in various museums, including the Rijksmuseum, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Museum Catharijneconvent, and the Hermitage Museum. There is a church Interior by this painter in the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. A flower still life by him was previously held at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.
His painting "Dives and Lazarus" was discovered in a cottage near Welshpool, Wales, and is expected to fetch more than £100,000 at auction. | © Wikipedia
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Dirck Christiaensz. van Delen, o Deelen (Heusden, 1604 o 1605 - Arnemuiden, 16 maggio 1671), è stato un incisore, pittore e disegnatore Olandese del secolo d'oro.
La parte iniziale della sua vita non è molto conosciuta: poco dopo la sua nascita, la sua famiglia si trasferì a Breda per un periodo imprecisato. Non si conosce nemmeno con esattezza quale sia stato il suo maestro: secondo Houbraken fu Frans Hals, ma questa informazione probabilmente non è corretta. Secondo Jantzen (1910) fu forse apprendista presso Hendrick Aertz, ma più probabilmente studiò a Delft presso Bartholomeus van Bassen e/o Pieter van Bronckhorst e l'influenza di Aertz si fece sentire attraverso questi ultimi.
Le prime notizie certe riguardano il suo viaggio a Roma nel 1623 ed il suo matrimonio avvenuto nel 1625 a Middelburg. L'anno successivo si trasferì ad Arnemuiden, di cui ottenne la cittadinanza nel 1628 e dove rimase fino al 1671 gestendo un casello per il pedaggio. Fece parte del consiglio cittadino, quasi sempre come borgomastro, a partire dal 1628 fino alla sua morte. Dal 1639-1665 fu membro della Corporazione di San Luca di Middelburg.
Tra il 1666-1668 fu ad Anversa, dove nel 1668 divenne membro della camera degli oratori Olyftak, a cui donò un grande dipinto, realizzato in collaborazione con Theodoor Boeyermans nel 1666. Rimase vedovo per tre volte: di Maria van der Gracht nel 1650, Catharine de Hane di 34 anni nel 1652 e di Johanna van Baelen ed ebbe una figlia dalla prima moglie, che sposò il chirurgo di Middelburg Samuel Boone. L'inventario, effettuato alla sua morte, delle sue proprietà testimonia della ricchezza dell'artista.
Collaborò con Bartholomeus van Bassen, Anthonie Palamedes, Dirck Hals, Jacob Duck e Pieter Codde, che si occupavano della realizzazione delle figure nei suoi dipinti.
Soggetti delle sue opere furono soprattutto le architetture, gli interni, in particolare di chiese, e le nature morte di fiori. È infatti noto per i suoi dipinti di palazzi immaginari e di chiese, ma anche per una natura morta del 1637 con un tulipano in un vaso di porcellana bianca e blu, che unisce fantasia ad una prospettiva perfetta. Caratteristica delle sue opere sono il colore chiaro e luminoso, a volte un po' freddo, e un'ottima realizzazione della prospettiva. Il suo stile fu influenzato da Hendrick van Steenwijk I e da Hans Vredeman de Vries. Quest'ultimo infatti, poco prima di morire nel 1604, pubblicò un trattato sulla prospettiva e gli ornamenti architettonici, che trasmise agli artisti nordici le conoscenze italiane relative a tali argomenti.
Fu suo allievo Hans Jurriaensz van Baden. Subì la sua influenza Daniël de Blieck. | © Wikipedia
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