Adriaen van Cronenburg (also Cronenburgh, Cronenburch) (

Schagen Schagen () is a city and municipality in the northwestern Netherlands. It is located between Alkmaar and Den Helder, in the region of West Friesland (region), West Friesland and the province of North Holland. It received City rights in the Nethe ...

, –

Bergum Burgum is the largest and administrative town of the municipality of Tytsjerksteradiel, in the Dutch province of Friesland. It had a population of 10,058 inhabitants in January 2017. On 1 January 1989 the official name of the village was chang ...

, after 1604) was a Northern

Netherlandish The Low Countries comprise the coastal Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region in Western Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of Northern France. Both Belgium and the ...

painter. He produced mainly portraits. Cronenburg was active between about 1547 and 1590, working in the provinces of

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

and

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

. He also spent some time in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, especially in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

and

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, where he painted the portrait of

Katheryn of Berain Katheryn of Berain () (born 1535 - Latin eulogy; died aged 56 on 27 August 1591), sometimes called ''Mam Cymru'' ("mother of Wales"), was a Welsh people, Welsh noblewoman noted for her four marriages and her extensive network of descendants and ...

now in

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff (), formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Wel ...

. Cronenburg's cousin married into two aristocratic families in succession, and it is likely through this connection that he became secretary of

Tietjerksteradeel Tytsjerksteradiel () is a municipality in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. It is named after the town of Tytsjerk, whose name is derived from a person named Tiete. Tiete was a daughter of Tryn, after whom the region (Trynwâlden) is n ...

in 1567. Following the

Union of Utrecht The Union of Utrecht () was an alliance based on an agreement concluded on 23 January 1579 between a number of Habsburg Netherlands, Dutch provinces and cities, to reach a joint commitment against the king, Philip II of Spain. By joining forces ...

, Cronenburg left Friesland in 1580 due to his refusal to give up Catholicism. He was allowed to return to Friesland in 1592 and settled in

. The last signed works known are from 1587 and 1590. The identity of Adriaen van Cronenburg was established by A. Wassenbergh, formerly the director of the

Fries Museum The Fries Museum (Frisian Museum) is a museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. It has won the Global Fine Art Award which is sometimes nicknamed the Museum-Oscar. History (1881–2012) The museum was founded on 13 April 1881 by the "''Provincial Fries ...

, based on his unusual signature, ''A.a.a.a. van Cronenburg''. Anna van Cronenburg (1552 – ) was a documented relation of Adriaen, the daughter of a doctor whose second husband became mayor of

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

in 1579. The issue of the real identity of the artist was raised in an article in 1934 by G. Marlier. Various works by Cronenburg are in the Fries Museum, and a group of four related portraits of women is in the

Prado Museum The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

in Spain. The Prado group are all three-quarter length standing portraits of ladies, two with daughters of perhaps ten years old. One has a skull on a table, like the Cardiff portrait. The four, plus a lost fifth work, were inventoried in the

Spanish royal collection The Spanish royal collection of art was almost entirely built up by the monarchs of the Habsburg family who ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700, and then the House of Bourbon, Bourbons (1700–1868, with a brief interruption). They included a number of ...

at the old royal palace, the

Royal Alcazar of Madrid Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Roy ...

, in 1636, and show their subjects in front of the same background of a Renaissance blind arcade with niches and green drapery, and are virtually the same size (about 1.05 x 0.79 cm).Nos. 2073–2076 in the Prado catalogue: ''Museo del Prado, Catálogo de las pinturas'', 1996, pp 90 and 549, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Madrid,

References

External links

Paintings by Adriaen van Cronenburg in the Fries Museum
*
Adriaen van Cronenburg
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Adriaen van Cronenburg
on

artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City. It is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly-traded company based in Berlin that is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Ex ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronenburg, Adriaen van Dutch Renaissance painters 1520s births 1600s deaths People from Friesland People from Schagen Painters from North Holland

References

Further reading

External links