Johannes van Bronckhorst

Johannes van Bronckhorst
'An Assembly of Exotic Birds.
Born	Johannes Pietersz 1648 Leiden
Died	1727 (aged 78–79) Hoorn
Nationality	Netherlands
Known for	Painting
Movement	Baroque

Johannes van Bronckhorst (1648–1727) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.

Biography

According to Houbraken, he learned to paint from his father Pieter van Bronckhorst, who died when he was thirteen. The young Bronckhorst was sent to work as a pastry baker for a cousin in Haarlem. He drew as a hobby, and it remained a hobby until he moved back to Hoorn to get married. He specialized in painting plants, birds, and insects. Although he remained a pastry baker, he did very well with his watercolours, which were published in engravings and commemorated with a poem by Johannes Vollenhove.^[1] There is a painting titled Aurora in the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.

His pupils were Hendrik Graauw and Herman Henstenburgh.^[2] Both Bronckhorst and Herman Henstenburgh worked for Agnes Block painting animals, insects and plants from her garden.

References

1. (Dutch) Johannes Bronkhorst biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
2. RKD entry on Johannes van Bronckhorst