Cornelis de Man Musical Company in an Interior

Cornelis de Man (1 July 1621, in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

– 1 September 1706, in Delft) was a

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the '' Rampjaar'' occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific development ...

painter.

Biography

As a young man, Kornelis was not satisfied with life in Delft. He wanted to travel beyond the port of Dordrecht and that is what he did, spending a year in Paris as soon as he came of age and had enough talent to pay his way with his painting skills. According to the RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History) he became a member of the Delft Guild of St. Luke in 1642 and ultimately travelled to Italy.Cornelis de Man
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 ...

He was well-received in Paris at the outset of his travels, but set off in the Spring for

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in order to cross Lombardia and the mountains before another winter set in. He settled for two years in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, where he had a rich patron, but finally stayed the longest in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. On the way back home he stopped in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, and in the end was gone for a total of nine years. He was back in 1653 and stayed in Delft, where he created genre works that are reckoned to be "of the "

Pieter de Hooch Pieter Hendricksz. de Hooch (; also spelled ''Hoogh'' or ''Hooghe''; 20 December 1629 – after 1683), was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a contemporary, in the ...

" school.

Career in Delft

He became a successful painter in Delft, painting a prestigious group portrait for the Anatomy guild there, as well as a renowned painting for the Amsterdam

Noordsche Compagnie The Noordsche Compagnie () was a Dutch cartel in the whaling trade, founded by several cities in the Netherlands in 1614 and operating until 1642. Soon after its founding, it became entangled in territorial conflicts with England, Denmark-Norwa ...

, a northern branch of the Amsterdam

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. This unusual painting was a studio reconstruction of the factory in

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

, based on a Danish original. He added all sorts of arctic details to this painting, though he never traveled further north than Denmark.Whale-oil factory
(

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 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 Museumplein, Museum Square in the stadsdeel, borough of Amsterdam-Zuid, Amsterdam South, ...

), retrieved 30-aug-09

References

External links

Cornelis de Man
at PubHist
Vermeer and The Delft School
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Cornelis de Man

Cats in Cornelis de Man's Art {{DEFAULTSORT:Man, Cornelis de 1621 births 1706 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Delft