Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (between 1600 and 1603 – buried 30 June 1662) was a Dutch

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

painter from

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

Life

Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck was born between 1600 and 1603 in

as the son of the painter

Cornelis Engelsz Cornelis Engelsz (1575–1650) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and the father of Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck. Biography Engelsz was born in Gouda. According to Houbraken, he was a pupil of Karel van Mander and a colleague of Frans Hals ...

from Gouda, who taught him to paint. In 1632 he became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke and started a successful career as a portraitist of mostly Catholic sitters in Haarlem. He may have been a

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 ...

pupil, and was strongly influenced by him, especially in his natural expressions and relaxed poses. He is best known for his exactness in painting details such as jewelry and lace, which made him quite popular with female sitters. Most notably, he won a lucrative commission in 1642 for a group portrait of the regentesses of the Heilige Geesthuis, at the time one of the wealthiest charity institutions in Haarlem, situated on the Krocht. This was won at the expense of Frans Hals himself, who had painted the regents of the St. Elisabeth Gasthuis in 1641 and fully expected to win the commission for the women. Twenty years later Verspronck even painted the regentesses of the St. Elisabeth Gasthuis. According to Houbraken, he was called "Gerard Sprong", and was the son of the painter

who made many schuttersstukken that could be seen in the Doelen (he meant the buildings in Haarlem that were used for target practise, and where today the central

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

and proveniershuis are located.