Govert Flinck

Govert (or Govaert) Teuniszoon Flinck (January 25, 1615 - February 2, 1660) was a Dutch painter of the Dutch Golden Age.

Works

The earliest of Flinck's authentic pieces is a portrait of a lady, dated 1636, in the gallery of Brunswick. His first subject picture is the Blessing of Jacob, in the Amsterdam museum (1638). Both are thoroughly Rembrandtesque in effect as well as in vigour of touch and warmth of flesh tints. The four civic guards of 1642, and the twelve musketeers with their president in an arm-chair (1648); in the town-hall at Amsterdam, are fine specimens of composed portrait groups. But the best of Flinck's productions in this style is the peace of Münster in the museum of Amsterdam, a canvas with 19 life size figures full of animation in the faces, "radiant with Rembrandtesque colour," and admirably distributed. Flinck here painted his own likeness to the left in a doorway The mannered period of Flinck is amply illustrated in the Marcus Curius eating Turnips before the Samnite Envoys, and Solomon receiving Wisdom, in the palace on the Dam at Amsterdam. Here it is that Flinck shows most defects, being faulty in arrangement, gaudy in tint, flat and shallow in execution, that looks as if it had been smeared with violet powder and rouge.

Related Topics:
Portrait - Brunswick - Peace of Münster - Marcus Curius - Solomon

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The chronology of Flinck's works, so far as they are seen in public galleries, comprises, in addition to the foregoing, the Grey Beard of 1639 at Dresden, the Girl of 1641 at the Louvre, a portrait group of a male and female (1646) at Rotterdam, a lady (1651) at Berlin. In November 1659 the burgomaster of Amsterdam contracted with Flinck for 12 canvases to represent four heroic figures of David and Samson and Marcus Curius and Horatius Cocles, and scenes from the Batavians and Romans. Flinck was unable to finish more than the sketches.

Related Topics:
Dresden - Louvre - Rotterdam - Berlin - David - Samson - Horatius Cocles - Batavia - Romans

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In the same year he received a flattering acknowledgment from the town council of Cleves an the completion of a picture of Solomon which was a counterpart of the composition at Amsterdam. This and other pictures and portraits, such as those of Friedrich Wilhelm and John Maurice, and the allegory of Louisa of Orange attended by Victory and Fame and other figures at the cradle of the first-born son of the elector, have disappeared. Of several pictures which were painted for the Great Elector, none are preserved except the Expulsion of Hagar in the Berlin museum.

Related Topics:
John Maurice - Allegory - Hagar

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