South Netherlandish family of painters and draughtsmen. They moved to Antwerp from Cleve in the late 15th century or the early 16th. Hendrik van Cleve I was registered as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1489-90 and in 1519-20 took Jan Sanders van Hemessen as his pupil. Any kinship between Hendrik I and Willem van Cleve I ( fl 1518-43), who became a master in 1518, is uncertain. Van Mander described a Hendrik van Cleve as the patriarch of the family and added that he joined the guild in 1533 and later collaborated with Frans Floris and his own brother Marten; but he clearly confused Hendrik II (who joined the Guild of St Luke in 1534) with (1) Hendrik van Cleve III, one of the three sons of Willem I, all of whom joined the Guild in 1551-2, probably after the death of their father, in whose studio they had been working. Hendrik III and (2) Marten van Cleve I both joined Floris's workshop. The third brother, Willem the younger (1530/35-before 1560), left no children, but the sons of Hendrik III
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