Cornelis or Cornelius Ketel (18 March 1548 – 8 August 1616) was a Dutch

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

painter, active in

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

London from 1573 to 1581, and in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

till his death. Ketel, known essentially as a portrait-painter, was also a poet and orator, and from 1595 a

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

as well.Rudolf Ekkart, ''Cornelis Ketel'', Grove Art Online, accessed January 31st, 2008 According to Ketel's biography, written by his contemporary

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History ...

, he seems to have wanted to concentrate on the most prestigious of the

hierarchy of genres A hierarchy of genres is any formalization which ranks different genres in an art form in terms of their prestige and cultural value. In literature, the Epic poetry, epic was considered the highest form, for the reason expressed by ...

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and B ...

, which included mythological subjects, but after he left France he is known almost entirely as a portrait-painter. Neither England nor Holland had much demand for large history paintings during his lifetime, and none of Ketel's histories or allegorical paintings are known to have survived intact, although drawings and prints survive. He did however significantly influence the development of the largest type of painting commonly produced in the United Provinces at this period, the civic group portrait.

Life

Ketel was born in Gouda on 18 March 1548 as an illegitimate child of Elisabeth Jacobsdr. Ketel and the art collector Govert Jans van Proyen. The famous Gouda glass painter Dirck Crabeth encouraged him to start painting as a student of his uncle, Cornelis Jacobsz. At the age of 18, he became a student of the

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, ...

painter Anthonie Blocklandt. He later traveled to Paris where he lived with Jean de la Hame, glass-painter to King Charles IX. From

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he went to

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...

, where he was working in 1566, in the final years of the

School of Fontainebleau The School of Fontainbleau () () refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late French Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming Northern Mannerism, and represent the first majo ...

, a sojourn which was no doubt decisive in forming his taste for Mannerist allegory. He was forced to leave France in 1567 when all citizens of the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. ...

were expelled. He returned to Gouda, but the economy there was severely hit by the occupation of the city in 1572 by the

Geuzen ''Geuzen'' (; ; ) was a name assumed by the confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles, who from 1566 opposed Spanish rule in the Netherlands. The most successful group of them operated at sea, and so were called ''Watergeuzen'' (; ; ). In the Eigh ...

rebels, followed in 1573 by a plague which killed 20% of the population and the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, exc ...

which was entering a new phase that destabilised daily life throughout the Netherlands. Next, Ketel is recorded in England, and was one of several exiled Netherlandish artists active at the Tudor court in the 1570s. Cornelis Ketel married Aeltgen Gerrits in London in 1573. The biographer

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History ...

notes his portrait of

Sir Christopher Hatton Sir Christopher Hatton (12 December 1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason. Early ...

, of the

Earl of Oxford Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford, Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. De Vere family, His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half cen ...

, and various noblemen, their wives and children. In 1578, permission was granted for a portrait of

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen B ...

, when on a visit to

Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (née Stanhope; before 1512 – 16 April 1587) was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1500–1552), who held the office of Lord Protector during the first part of the reign of their n ...

Hanworth Park London Air Park, also known as Hanworth Air Park, was a grass airfield in the grounds of Hanworth Park House, operational 1917–1919 and 1929–1947. It was on the southeastern edge of Feltham, now part of the London Borough of Hounslow. In t ...

House in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

KETEL Cornelis Double Portrait Of A Brother And Sister

Finding no market in England for his preferred allegorical subjects, Ketel returned to the Low Countries as his son Rafaël was born in Amsterdam in 1581. Ketel introduced the full-length group portrait format to the Dutch burghers with great success, and seems to have been mostly commissioned as a portraitist. The Dutch taste emerging from the revolt was hostile to Mannerist allegory and even to simpler mythological subjects in art, which were widely associated with the hated

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

s, the rulers against whom the Dutch were rebelling. He also painted some religious subjects; it is likely he was

Remonstrants The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his or ...

, just as his friend

Hendrick de Keyser Hendrick de Keyser (15 May 1565 – 15 May 1621) was a Dutch sculptor, merchant in Belgium bluestone, and architect who was instrumental in establishing a late Renaissance form of Mannerism changing into Baroque. Most of his works appeared in Ams ...

, the city architect and sculptor. His son

Thomas de Keyser Thomas de Keyser (c. 1596–1667) was a Dutch portrait painter and a dealer in Belgium bluestone and stone mason. He was the most in-demand portrait painter in the Netherlands until the 1630s, when Rembrandt eclipsed him in popularity. Rembra ...

is thought to have been pupil of

Cornelis van der Voort Cornelis van der Voort or van der Voorde (c. 1576 – buried on 2 November 1624) was a Dutch portrait painter, art collector, art appraiser and art dealer from the early 17th century who was active in Amsterdam.schuttersstukken. The Danish-born

Pieter Isaacsz Pieter Isaacsz (ca 1569, Helsingør – 14 September 1625) was a Danish court and portrait painter from Dutch origin who worked in a mannerist style on historical, biblical and mythological subjects. He was also a tapestry designer and art-dealer ...

was certainly a pupil, and Van Mander mentions more. One was

Wouter Crabeth Wouter Pietersz. Crabeth II (1594 – c. 18 June 1644) was a Dutch painter and draughtsman known for his genre art, genre scenes, biblical subjects and occasional portraits.Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

church as he was an

Arminian Arminianism is a movement of Protestantism initiated in the early 17th century, based on the Christian theology, theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic supporters known as Remo ...

or a

Remonstrant The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ori ...

. This marriage produced one son, Andries, who died at a very young age. Ketel suffered a stroke and made his will in November 1613, witnessed by Hendrick de Keyser. He died on 8 August 1616.

Works

London years

Ketel quickly established himself as a successful painter of portraits in London. Karel van Mander records that Ketel was patronized by the prosperous German Hansa merchants of the

Steelyard The Steelyard, from the Middle Low German (sample yard), was the kontor (foreign trading post) of the Hanseatic League in London, and their main trading base in England, between the 13th and 16th centuries. The main goods that the League export ...

and that a ''Force overcome by Wisdom and Prudence'' commissioned from him and presented to Sir

Christopher Hatton Sir Christopher Hatton (12 December 1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason. Early ...

introduced him to court circles. Hatton commissioned a portrait and

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

sat to him in 1578. Ketel's large output in these years, much of which is now lost, can be estimated by the quantity of his known commissions. In 1577 Ketel was commissioned to paint a series of 19 portraits for the

Cathay Company Michael Lok (or Locke; c. 1532 – c. 1621) was an English merchant and traveller, and the principal backer of Sir Martin Frobisher's voyages in search of the Northwest Passage. He was the governor of the failed Cathay Company formed with Frob ...

, one of which is the famous (but very damaged) full-length of

Martin Frobisher Sir Martin Frobisher (; – 22 November 1594) was an English sailor and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before ...

now in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

. and several "great" paintings of

Kalicho Kalicho was the name assigned to an Inuit, Inuk man from the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island (now in Nunavut Canada). He was brought back to England as a captive by Sir Martin Frobisher in 1577. He was taken along with an unrelated Inuit wom ...

, the

Inuk Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labr ...

man Frobisher had brought back to England. Ketel's self-portrait, which was engraved by Hendrick Bary, is in the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

. Recently, a series of head-and-shoulders paintings of members of the family of Thomas "Customer" Smythe dated 1579, now widely dispersed, has been identified as the work of Cornelis Ketel. Apparently, all of Ketel's allegorical paintings have been lost, however, a formerly lost masterpiece was discovered and exhibited at the Tate Museum, London, in 1995, in a major exhibition entitled ''Dynasties. Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630''. Attribution as to title of this work, this may be the lost "Triumph of Wisdom and Prudence over Force" 1580, painted in England. (Miedema-Schulting 1988) Referred to as "Allegory", this fragment, which was recently discovered, today forms, together with the reverse of no. 55, the sole remnant of Ketel's rich production of painted allegories, described in detail in van Mander in his Schilder-Boeck of 1604 iedema 1994 Records indicate that Ketel charged £1 for a head-and-shoulders portrait and £5 for a full-length.

Nicholas Hilliard Nicholas Hilliard ( – before 7 January 1619) was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some l ...

, then in his prime as a painter of

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting from Renaissance art, usually executed in gouache, Watercolor painting, watercolor, or Vitreous enamel, enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illumin ...

s, typically charged £3 for a miniature.

Later works

Some of Ketel's history paintings are documented in various ways, including a ''

Democritus Democritus (, ; , ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, Thrace, Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an ...

'' and a ''

Heraclitus Heraclitus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, ...

'' copied very brilliantly by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

aged around thirteen, when he was training with

Pieter Lastman Pieter Lastman (1583–1633) was a Dutch painter. Lastman is considered important because of his work as a painter of history pieces and because his pupils included Rembrandt and Jan Lievens. In his paintings Lastman paid careful attention to ...

in Amsterdam. These were perhaps

tronie A tronie () is a type of work common in Dutch Golden Age painting and Flemish Baroque painting that depicts an exaggerated or characteristic facial expression. These works were not intended as portraits or caricatures but as studies of expressio ...

s, the Dutch genre of imaginary portraits of mythological or historical persons. A van Mander story describes a peasant trying to explain a Ketel '' Danae'' to his wife, and getting it confused with an

Annunciation The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

. Ketel's 1588 ''The Company of Captain Rosecrans'', the earliest Dutch group portrait where the figures are shown standing and full length, "greatly influenced later artists of militia pieces, such as Rembrandt in his ''

Night Watch Night Watch or Nightwatch may refer to: Being on duty at night * The nighttime shift worked by a security guard (night watchman) * Watchman (law enforcement), organized groups of men to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement * One of ...

'' of 1642."—to whom one should add

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...

and

Bartholomeus van der Helst Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613 – buried 16 December 1670) was a Dutch painter. Considered to be one of the leading portrait painters of the Dutch Golden Age, his elegant portraits gained him the patronage of Amsterdam's elite as well as th ...

—and set an Amsterdam tradition; Hals's Harlem groups are from knee-height only, but his great Amsterdam group is full-length. However, Ketel, like Hals, spread his sitters laterally at irregular intervals, but kept them all in a row at the front of the picture space; it was left to Rembrandt to spread his subjects deep into the picture-space as well. The picture has been trimmed on all sides, especially above; originally the city gate in front of which the group are standing was much more prominent, and in this respect closer to the ''Night Watch''. The group also carry their weapons indoors, another innovation. Together with

Pieter Pietersz Pieter Pietersz the Elder, also Pieter Pietersz. (I), (1540–1603) was a Dutch Renaissance painter. Biography Pietersz was born in Antwerp. According to Karel van Mander, who mentioned him in his biography of his father Pieter Aertsen, he ...

, Ketel was the leading portraitist in Amsterdam for many years, and one of the generation of Dutch portrait-painters whose increasingly sophisticated work laid the foundations for their much more famous successors. Whereas in England portraits in oils remained mostly confined to the court and gentry, in the Netherlands they were already common among the prosperous mercantile classes. Ketel lived across Oude Kerk, where he bought in 1593 a house on the so-called "Velvet Canal". Both Ketel and Pietersz developed an Amsterdam style often marked by depicting sitters "very close to the picture plane, from an unusual angle, and cropped closely by the frame" (see ''Double Portrait of a Brother and Sister'', below). Ketel seems to have kept a stock of drawings of poses, from which a patron might choose, and which could be worked up by studio assistants without the sitter's presence being required. Van Mander records that around 1600 he at times discarded his brush and painted directly with his fingers, and even developed the trick of painting with his feet and toes—presumably just for short periods. This may have been to amuse himself and his sitters, to relieve boredom. An alternative, perhaps more likely, explanation, is that he was forced to do so by a progressive paralysis, perhaps

arthritic Arthritis is a general medical term used to describe a disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected jo ...

, which finally completely overcame him by 1610–1613.Grove op cit

Gallery

File:Martin Frobisher by Cornelis Ketel (1577).png, Sir Martin Frobisher, 1577 File:Thomas Pead by Cornelis Ketel.jpg, Thomas Pead, 1578. The skull is inscribed "Respice finem". File:Richard Goodricke of Ribston by Ketel.jpg, Richard Goodricke of Ribston, 1578 File:Cornelis Ketel John Smythe.png, John Smythe, 1579 File:Cornelis Ketel (attr) Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter.png, Thomas Cecil, First Earl of Exeter. 1575

Notes

References

* Cust, Lionel: "Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections-XXIV. On Some Portraits by Cornelis Ketel" ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 22 No. 116 (November 1912) *Ekkart, Rudi, and Quentin Buvelot, eds. ''Dutch Portraits, The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals'', Zwolle: Mauritshuis/National Gallery/Waanders Publishers 2007, *Franits, Wayne. ''Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting'', Princeton: Yale University Press, 2004, *Hearn, Karen, ed. ''Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630''. New York: Rizzoli, 1995. *James, Ralph N. ''Painters and Their Works: A Dictionary of Great Artists who are Not Now Alive'', London: L. Upcott Gill, 1897, digitized a
Google Books
retrieved 3 February 2008 *Judson, J. Richard, "A New Insight into Cornelis Ketel's Method of Portraiture" ''Master Drawings'' 1.4 (Winter 1963) *Slive, Seymour, ''Dutch Painting, 1600-1800'', Princeton: Yale University Press, 1995, * Strong, Roy,''The English Icon: Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture'', 1969, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (Strong 1969) *Strong, Roy: ''Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I'', New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987, (Strong 1987) *Waterhouse, Ellis; ''Painting in Britain, 1530-1790'', 4th Edn, 1978, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art series)

External links

Birth certificate of a child called Rafel

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ketel, Cornelis 1548 births 1616 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Dutch Renaissance painters Artists from Gouda, South Holland Painters from South Holland Dutch Mannerist painters