Hendrick ter Brugghen

Dutch, ca. 1588–1629

BiographyHendrick ter Brugghen was born in 1588, probably in The Hague, though he was raised in Utrecht and lived most of his life there until his death in 1629. He was one of the founding members of the Utrecht Caravaggisti, a group of Dutch painter who were greatly influenced by Caravaggio.

As a boy in Utrecht, Ter Brugghen studied art with the master Abraham Bloemaert. Around age sixteen, he traveled to Italy, staying chiefly in Rome for almost ten years. This migration to Italy gave him the opportunity to study in detail the work of Caravaggio, and incorporate some of these ideas, as well as themes and techniques of Northern Italian followers of Caravaggio, into his own work.

Throughout his life, Ter Brugghen experimented with different themes and subject matter. In accordance with Northern Renaissance and Dutch tradition, he painted genre scenes, or scenes of everyday life (figures playing musical instruments, drinking, etc.). In his later years, his style and compositions became more mature, as he illustrated on a grand scale moral and religious scenes that had become popular during the Counter-Reformation. Hendrick ter Brugghen continued to paint until his premature death in 1629, which, according to some scholars, “may have cut short the most innovative stage of his artistic development.”