Gérard de Lairesse (1640-1711)

Gerard de Lairesse was born at liege and trained under Bertholet Flemal. At the age of twenty-five he settled in Amsterdam, where he soon became on the most prominent artists of the second half of the century. He introduced into the united provinces a new style steeped in the French classical tradition, breaking with the art of Rembrandt and Dutch naturalism. Essentially "pictor doctus", he upheld an art based on the academic doctrine of "ut pictura poesis". His work comprises numerous easel paintings commissioned by well-read connaisseurs, large-scale decorative schemes (including several ceiling decorations), and a hundred or so engravings and drawings. He went blind in 1690 and thereafter devoted his time to teaching. In 1707 he published his lectures under the title Het groot schilderboek (the great book of painters), which won great acclaim throughout Europe. Beginning with a study of the painter's career and art, this monograph establishes the "catalogue raisonne" of his work (more than four hundred items) and brings together all the material relating to this important artist.