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 of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

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 Ra ...

and a merchant in

animal skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...

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 substa ...

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 schoo ...

s with a French teacher in

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan ...

. 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 ''"N ...

. 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 compo ...

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-secon ...

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 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. It has also been used ...

s. He became the Commissary-general of Commerce in London around 1793. After the

Batavian Revolution The Batavian Revolution ( nl, De Bataafse Revolutie) was a time of political, social and cultural turmoil at the end of the 18th century that marked the end of the Dutch Republic and saw the proclamation of the Batavian Republic. The period of ...

, he negotiated the exchange of

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

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 ...

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 The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

. 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 (opene ...

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 * ...

,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 Lavinia Powlett, Duchess of Bolton (1708 – 24 January 1760), known by her stagename as Lavinia Fenton, was an English actress who was the mistress and later the wife of the 3rd Duke of Bolton. She was probably the daughter of a naval lieutenan ...

, 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 Daniell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander Daniell (1599–1668), Cornish landowner * Alfred Daniell (1853–1937) * Ave Daniell (1914–1999), American (gridiron) footballer * Charles Daniell (1827–1889), Major-Ge ...

's ''Views of Hindostan''.

References

External links

Works by Cornelis Apostool
in the collection of the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Sted ...

{{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