Hendrick Terbrugghen
(b. 1588, Deventer, d. 1629, Utrecht)
Dutch painter, one of the earliest and finest exponents of
Caravaggism in northern Europe. Born into a Catholic family, he grew
up in Utrecht, studied there with Bloemaert, then spent about a
decade in Rome (c. 1604-1614). On his return to the Netherlands he
became with Honthorst the leader of Caravaggism associated with the
Utrecht school. A second journey to Italy (c. 1620) has been
postulated, as his later works are generally more thoroughly
Caravaggesque than his earlier ones.
Terbrugghen was chiefly a religious painter, but he also produced
some remarkable genre works, notably a pair of Flute Players
(Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel, 1621), which in their subtle
tonality - with dark figures placed against a light background -
anticipated by a generation the achievement of painters of the Delft
school such as Fabritius and Vermeer.
Although he was praised by Rubens, who visited Utrecht in 1627,
Terbrugghen was neglected by 18th- and 19th-century collectors and
historians. The rediscovery of his sensitive and poetic paintings
has been part of the reappraisal of Caravaggesque art during the
20th century.
