Arnold Boonen

Portrait of Arnoldus Boonen (upper left) in Jan van Gool's "Nieuw Schouburg", 1750

Detail of a portrait of Agatha Levina, Joan and Ana Elisabeth Geelvinck, c. 1705.

Arnold van Boonen was a Dutch eminent portrait painter, was born at Dordrecht, in the Dutch Republic in 1669. He was first a scholar of Arnold Verbius, and was later instructed by Godefried Schalken. He painted genre pictures in the style of the latter, representing subjects by candlelight, but met with such encouragement in portrait painting that he devoted himself almost wholly to that branch of art. His style was well adapted to succeed in it. An excellent oolourist, a faithful designer of his model, and highly skilled, he was soon distinguished as one of the ablest artists of his day. He painted a great number of portraits of the most distinguished people of his time, among whom were Peter the Great, the Elector of Mentz, the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Prince and Princess of Orange, the great Duke of Marlborough, and several others. He painted some large pictures for the halls of the different companies at Amsterdam and Dordrecht. He died in 1729.

The Dresden Gallery has seven works by him, and the 'Woman Singing' in the Lille Gallery is also attributed to him. His son, Kasper van Boonen, also painted portraits, but in no way proved himself equal to his father.

References

This article incorporates text from the article "BOONEN, Arnold van" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.

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