| Hoogstraeten has been called an interesting man but a minor artist. Trained by his father, Dirck van Hoogstraeten, he then became a Rembrandt pupil in about 1642 in Amsterdam, studying alongside Carel Fabritius and Abraham Furnerius. By 1648 he was back in Dordrecht and in 1651 he was active in Vienna where he was patronized by the royal family and decorated by the emperor (he received a golden chain and medallion, which he wears in his Portrait of the Masters of the Holland Mint, dated 1674, Dordrecht, Museum). In 1652 he was in Rome, in 1653 back in Vienna, and in 1654 again in Dordrecht, remaining there apparently until 1662, when he was in London according to some reports and where he is thought to have remained until after the great fire of September 1666. Pictura, the painters confraternity of The Hague, lists him as a member in 1668. In 1673 he returned to Dordrecht, and received the position of provost of the mint. In these last years he produced his Inleyding tot de hooge schoole de schilderkonst, published in 1678, a book that has exceptional value for recording conversations between him and his fellow students of Rembrandt, notably Fabritius and Furnerius. His style is close to Rembrandt during the 1640s, but it changed to a more academic manner during the 1650s, emulating the works of Gabriel Metsu or Pieter de Hooch. His oeuvre includes trompe l'oeil painting and perspective experiments - several perspective boxes, or peep shows, survive (Detroit Institute of Art; London, National Gallery) - as well as architectural fantasies, religious works, and portraits. Today he is best known for portraits and perspective paintings. His portraits tend to be cool, stiff, formal, and as group portraits go, unimaginative. |
