Matthijs Balen (1684 in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

– 1766 in

) was an 18th-century painter from the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. According to the RKD he was a registered pupil of

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch people, Dutch Painting, painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadt ...

, and like him, became a printmaker as well as a painter. He lived in The Hague from 1705–1715 and is known for Italianate landscapes, portraits, and historical allegories.Matthijs Balen
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 probably the son or grandson of the Dordrecht writer Mathias Balen, who wrote ''Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht'' in 1677. Houbraken himself had been a pupil of

Samuel van Hoogstraten Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627, in Dordrecht – 19 October 1678, in Dordrecht) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who was also a poet and author on art theory. Biography Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten trained first with his father Di ...

and was friends with Romeyn de Hooghe, both of whom assisted the elder Balen with some poems and etchings for his book.

References

Matthijs Balen
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Balen, Matthijs 1684 births 1766 deaths 18th-century Dutch painters 18th-century Dutch male artists Dutch male painters Painters from Dordrecht