Cornelis van
Hearlem(b Haarlem, 1562; d
Haarlem, 11 Nov 1638).
Dutch painter and draughtsman. He came from a wealthy family. During the
Spanish siege and occupation of Haarlem (1572–7), his parents moved
elsewhere, leaving their son and large house in the protection of the
painter Pieter Pietersz (1540/41–1603), who became Cornelis’s teacher.
In 1579 Cornelis travelled to France by sea, but the journey terminated
at Rouen because of an outbreak of plague. He then became a pupil of
Gillis Congnet in Antwerp, with whom he stayed for one year. In 1580–81
he returned permanently to Haarlem, and in 1583 he received his first
official commission from the city, a militia company portrait, the
Banquet of the Haarlem Civic Guard (Haarlem, Frans Halsmus.). Around
1584 he befriended Hendrick Goltzius and Karel van Mander, with whom he
is said to have established a kind of academy, which became known as the
Haarlem Academy. Cornelis later became city painter of Haarlem and
received numerous commissions from the town corporation. He worked for
the Commanders of the Order of St John and also for the Heilige
Geesthuis. He married Maritgen Arentsdr Deyman (d 1606), the
daughter of a burgomaster, some time before 1603. In 1605 he inherited
one third of his wealthy father-in-law’s estate. Cornelis also had one
illegitimate daughter (b 1611), who married Pieter Jansz. Bagijn,
a silversmith, and whose son was the painter Cornelis Bega. From 1626 to
1629 Cornelis Cornelisz. was a member of the Catholic Guild of St Jacob.
In 1630, along with several other artists, he drew up new regulations
for the Guild of St Luke, which brought to an end its essentially
medieval organization and conferred a higher status on art. The
surviving inventory of his estate contains valuable information about
his art collection. Iconographically, Cornelis van Haarlem—as he is
usually known—had a wider range than his Haarlem colleagues. Besides
conventional religious and mythological subjects, he produced a few
portraits as well as kitchen scenes and still-lifes.
