Gerrit van Honthorst Biography

Gerard van Honthorst was born in 1590. He came from an artistic family. Gerard, also known as Gerrit, became the most successful of the family's artists. Following a sojourn in Italy in the 1610s, he returned to Utrecht in 1620. He was a prominent representative of a group of painters that have become known as the Utrecht Caravaggists, Dutch followers of the Italian artist Caravaggio. The latter was especially known for his nocturnal scenes of candlelit figures. In the 1630s Van Honthorst acquired a name in court circles as a portrait painter, which led him to move to The Hague in 1637. In 1649 Van Honthorst was invited to paint part of the decoration of the Orange hall at the stadholder's palace of Huis ten Bosch. In 1652 the artist returned to Utrecht, where he died four years later.