Details

Name

Gerard de Lairesse

Brief Biography

1644-1711, Flemish

Occupation

Artist

Description

Gerard de Lairesse was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist. His treatises on painting and drawing, Grondlegginge der teekenkonst (1701) and Het groot schilderboeck (1707), were highly influential on 18th Century painters like Jacob de Wit. Students of de Lairesse included the painter Jan van Mieris.

Born in Liège in present-day Belgium, Gerard de Lairesse studied art under Bertholet Flemalle and his father Renier Lairesse. In 1664 he was forced to flee Liège after a love affair gone wrong. He moved north to Utrecht in the Dutch Republic. When his talent was discovered by art dealer Gerrit van Uylenburgh, he relocated in 1667 to Amsterdam.

At first, he was highly influenced by Rembrandt, but later he focused on a more classical, allegorically-themed, French-oriented style similar to Nicolas Poussin. The French even nicknamed him the "Dutch Poussin".

In the second half of the 17th Century, the pious austerity and embarrassment of riches of the Dutch in Rembrandt's age had given way to unbridled opulence, even decadence, and de Lairesse's classical French style fitted this age perfectly. It made him one of, if not the most popular painter in Amsterdam. He was therefore frequently hired to adorn the interiors of government buildings and homes of wealthy Amsterdam businessmen with lavish trompe l'oeil ceiling and wall paintings. De Lairesse suffered from congenital syphilis, which caused him to go blind in 1690. The misformed nose which the disease gave him is clearly visible on the portrait which Rembrandt painted of him around 1665. After losing his sight, de Lairesse was forced to give up painting and focused instead on lecturing and writing on art.

He died in Amsterdam.