Cornelis Apostool (; 6 August 1762 – 10 February 1844) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

artist, diplomat, and

museum director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Biography

Cornelis Apostool was born on 6 August 1762 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

. His father was Jan Apostool, a

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radi ...

and a merchant in

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s and

cocoa bean The cocoa bean (technically cocoa seed) or simply cocoa (), also called the cacao bean (technically cacao seed) or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substance ...

s, and his mother was Cornelia de Witte. He was the eleventh of twelve children, six of whom died at a young age. Michiel Jonker,
Apostool, Cornelis
, Historici.nl, 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2013. Apostool studied

foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

s with a French teacher in Delft. He then did an apprenticeship with a salesman in silver and gold in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

. From 1784 to 1786, he was a pupil of

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

Hendrik Meijer Hendrik Meijer (December 28, 1883 – May 31, 1964) was a Dutch-American businessman who founded the supercenter chain Meijer. Early life Meijer was born on December 28, 1883, in Hengelo, Netherlands, where his father worked under harsh cond ...

at the

art academy An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

back in Amsterdam. In 1786, Meijer and Apostool went to England, where Apostool stayed and lived to work as an engraver of

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...

s. He became the Commissary-general of Commerce in London around 1793. After the Batavian Revolution, he negotiated the exchange of prisoners of war for the Batavian Republic in London. In 1796, he returned to his native country. During the French occupation from 1798 to 1802, Apostool worked as an illustrator for the Agency of Interior Police and Water Management and later the Council of Interior Affaires. In 1802, Apostool returned to his position as Commissary-general of Commerce in London, and he negotiated the release of Batavian ships. In 1806, he was appointed Government Secretary in the Dutch East Indies. But before he even arrived there,

Louis Bonaparte Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...

became

King of Holland The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

and Apostool returned. In 1807, he briefly was a diplomat in the Kingdom of Naples. In 1808, Apostool was appointed director of the

Royal Museum The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

in Amsterdam, which office he held until his death. In 1810, he was elected a member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. He died on 10 February 1844 at the age of 81 in Amsterdam.

Works

Some older biographies refer to Apostool as a

dilettante Dilettante or dilettantes may refer to: * An amateur, someone with a non-professional interest * A layperson, the opposite of an expert * ''Dilettante'' (album), a 2005 album by Ali Project * ''Dilettantes'' (album), a 2008 album by You Am I * D ...

,Apostool, Cornelis
Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, 1911. Retrieved 25 April 2013. but in a 2012 biography is claimed that he was more than a dilettante, because he made "artistically high quality

s of paintings and drawings of others". He engraved a portrait of Lavinia Fenton, afterwards Duchess of Bolton, after Hogarth, as well as landscapes for the ''Beauties of the Dutch School'', ''Select Views in the South of France'', ''Travels through the Maritime Alps'', and Daniell's ''Views of Hindostan''.

References

External links

Works by Cornelis Apostool
in the collection of the Rijksmuseum {{DEFAULTSORT:Apostool, Cornelis 1762 births 1844 deaths 19th-century Dutch painters Directors of museums in Amsterdam Dutch male painters Engravers from Amsterdam Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 19th-century Dutch male artists