Willem Jacobsz Delff

Father's family portrait,ca 1590. Willem is the boy on the lower left.

Willem Delff's engraving of Michiel van Mierevelt's painting of Maurice of Nassau

Willem Jacobsz Delff (c. October 1580 – 14 April 1638^[1]) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver and painter.

Biography

Delff was born and died in Delft. He learned painting from his father, Jacob Willemsz Delff the Elder, who painted a family portrait with his sons and wife Maria Joachimsdr Nagel. Jacob's sons were all artists in their own right; Cornelis (top left in the portrait) became a still life painter, while Rochus (between Cornelis and his father) became a portrait painter like his father. Willem married a daughter of Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt and became a renowned engraver.^[2][3] His son Jacob Willemsz Delff the Younger became a painter.^[4]

References

1. Delff, Willem Jacobsz at the RKD databases
2. Jakob Willemsz Delff biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
3. Jakob Delff biography Houbraken misnamed his son Willem the engraver, calling him Jakob after his father.
4. Delff, Jacob Willemsz. (II) at the RKD databases