Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Usage
- Genealogical Table 1
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Under the Spire of the Zuiderkerk
- 2 Ingenious Inventions and Rich Designs
- 3 Patriotic Prints
- 4 A Wandering Whore and a Talking Dog
- 5 A Fresh Start
- 6 The Prince Abandoned and Regained
- 7 The Harlequin Prints
- 8 Lampooning the Regents
- 9 The Pamphlet War
- 10 The Memorandum of Rights
- 11 Honour Defended
- 12 Serving the Stadtholder
- 13 Composing most Pompously
- 14 Final Years
- Appendix: Genealogy of the De Hooghe Family
- Sources
- Index
2 - Ingenious Inventions and Rich Designs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Usage
- Genealogical Table 1
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Under the Spire of the Zuiderkerk
- 2 Ingenious Inventions and Rich Designs
- 3 Patriotic Prints
- 4 A Wandering Whore and a Talking Dog
- 5 A Fresh Start
- 6 The Prince Abandoned and Regained
- 7 The Harlequin Prints
- 8 Lampooning the Regents
- 9 The Pamphlet War
- 10 The Memorandum of Rights
- 11 Honour Defended
- 12 Serving the Stadtholder
- 13 Composing most Pompously
- 14 Final Years
- Appendix: Genealogy of the De Hooghe Family
- Sources
- Index
Summary
Setting Up
In 1667, Romeyn set up his own studio as an independent master. Barely ten years later, he had become the most sought-after printmaker in Amsterdam, and indeed in the Dutch Republic, the owner of a thriving business, the teacher of a large number of apprentices, and a man of substantial means. How did his rise to fame and fortune come about? According to Ericus Walten, who acted as his ghost-writer, in 1690 Romeyn looked back thus on his early career:
[He] continually had 36 journeymen working for him in Amsterdam. With so many pupils, it is not surprising that people attribute so many [prints] to him. For when he started etching in Amsterdam, only three etchers and printmakers [plaatsnijders] were active; when he left [in 1681], the Painters’ Book [i.e., the register of the St Luke's Guild] recorded 110 of them. Almost all of them had been his pupils and were working after his designs. Similarly, it is difficult in these days to find an artist in any of the neighbouring countries who is not engraving and etching in the manner of Romeyn de Hooghe. Indeed, engravers, etchers, and draughtsmen are in the habit of tearing down [his] prints displayed on the windows and doors of booksellers in order to etch and engrave after the same, and follow his contours, shades, and thoughts. It necessarily follows that many works look like his. When he was living in Amsterdam, he made about 7,000 or 8,000 guilders a year. This was why he had many enemies, who envied and slandered him.
This account of Romeyn's early career, written as an apology at a time when he was under attack by his enemies, should be taken with a grain of salt. Evidently, many more than three printmakers would have been active in Amsterdam around 1670, and it was not true that most of the graphic artists working ten years later had been his pupils. But it is a fact that he was by far the most inventive among them, and that other graphic artists often copied or followed his inventions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Life of Romeyn de Hooghe 1645–1708Prints, Pamphlets, and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age, pp. 51 - 88Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018