Cornelis Troost

Cornelis Troost (8 October 1696 – 7 March 1750) was a Dutch actor and painter from Amsterdam.

Troost was trained as an actor and married the actress Susanna Maria van der Duyn, but became a pupil of Arnold Boonen and gave up his career for painting in 1723.Cornelis Troost
in the RKD

He is primarily remembered for his works depicting scenes from the Amsterdam Theatre (he also made theatre decorations for plays) and daily life of the upper crust in Amsterdam.
One of his earliest drawings dated 1708, is of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the bookseller and spy Louis Renard visiting a chic Amsterdam brothel. Then he had an early success with a lively group portrait depicting the Amsterdam Inspectors of the Collegium Medicum (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1724). Troost painted portraits, including one of Herman Boerhaave, the famous doctor from Leiden. Troost is known for his paintings of actors in famous roles as well as his witty and elegant Rococo genre scenes. Troost was possibly influenced by William Hogarth, and certainly by French artists such as Watteau, Boucher and Lancret.

His 1736 painting ''Jeronimus Tonneman and his Son'' shows the art collector seated in his parlour. He lived on the Keizersgracht, and collected Troost's paintings. It is assumed the book on the table is by Karel van Mander and on the chimney breast Argus and Mercury can be seen. Troost himself lived nearby on the banks of the river Amstel and at Prinsengracht.

A famous work, in his favorite medium of pastel and watercolor, is a five picture series entitled NELRI (Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1740). The name is derived from the first letters of the Latin inscriptions which accompany five views of the activities of a group of men during a night of reunion.WGA
Troost at Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved January 28, 2008. The inscriptions on the NELRI paintings are:
* Nemo loquebantur (''No one spoke'')
* Erat sermo inter fratres (''The brothers conversed'')
* Loquebantur omnes (''Everyone spoke'')
* Rumor erat in casa (''There was commotion in the house'')
* Ibant qui poterant, qui non potuere cadebant (''Those who could, went. Those who could not, fell over'')

File:De inspecteurs van het Collegium Medicum te Amsterdam, 1724 Rijksmuseum SK-A-1635.jpeg, The inspectors of the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam, 1724

File:Cornelis Troost - Jeronimus Tonneman and his Son - WGA23076.jpg, ''Jeronimus Tonneman and his Son,'' 1736, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

File:'De misleyden'; de ambassadeur der Labberlotten vertoont zich voor het venster van de herberg 't Bokki in de Haarlemmerhout Rijksmuseum SK-A-4089.jpeg, ''De misleyden'' (c.1720-1750), Rijksmuseum
File:'De wanhebbelijke liefde', misschien de scène van de weduwnaar Joost bij Lucia, 2de toneel uit het gelijknamige stuk van C J van der Lijn Rijksmuseum SK-A-4099.jpeg, ''De wanhebbelijke liefde'' (c. 1720-50), Rijksmuseum

His pupils were Jacobus Buys, Noël Challe, Pieter Tanjé, and his own daughter Sara Troost. He had five daughters and they were all trained in the arts, but only Sara had works engraved by other artists. She married the printer Jacob Ploos van Amstel and another daughter Elisabeth married his brother, the Amsterdam painter Cornelis Ploos van Amstel.

A famous descendant is Paul Ludwig Troost, a leading architect of Adolf Hitler.

Public collections

Among the public collections holding works by Cornelis Troost are:
* Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, The Netherlands
* Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, The Netherlands
* Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands
* Museo Municipal de Vigo "Quiñones de León", Spain

References

* Fuchs, RH; ''Dutch painting'', 1978, Thames and Hudson, London,

External links

images



Works and literature on Cornelis Troost
at PubHist

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troost, Cornelis
1696 births
1750 deaths
18th-century Dutch painters
18th-century Dutch male artists
Dutch male painters
18th-century Dutch male actors
Painters from Amsterdam
Male actors from Amsterdam