Daniel Blok or Daniel von Block (1580–1660) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Baroque painter.

Biography

According to Houbraken he was the son of Marten Blok of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. He was sent to learn the art of painting portraits from Jakob Scherer in Gdańsk. He attracted the attention of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, for whom he painted portraits. Houbraken goes on to say that he made a genealogical and heraldic family tree for the Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and went from being painter to becoming courtier, but he lost everything in a fire in 1651 during the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

. He survived and fled to Rostock, where he lived to the age of 80. His son

Benjamin Block Benjamin Block or Blok (1631–1690) was a seventeenth-century Germany, German-Hungary, Hungarian Baroque Painting, painter who married the flower painter Anna Katharina Block. He is known for his portrait paintings. Biography Block was born i ...

also became a court painter. According to the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

, Daniel Block worked in

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...

,Daniel Block
in the

but he must have been active in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

also, since that is where his son was born in 1631.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blok, Daniel 1580 births 1660 deaths German Baroque painters