Gerrit van Honthorst: A Discussion of his Position in Dutch Art

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Gerrit van Honthorst (1590-1656), known today primarily for his candlelight scenes, was also famous during the seventeenth century for his mythological and historical paintings, and was a favorite of the courts 1 in England, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is my intention here to study his oeuvre in order to determine his contribution to the develop- ment of Dutch painting at that time. In discussing Honthorst, I have chosen only those paintings which are autograph to avoid basing conclusions upon works of questionable attri- bution. The problem paintings which I have decided to be from his hand will be treated in the Catalogue Raisonne. I have dealt with Honthorst’s portraiture only in so far as it seemed to be of significance for new trends in Dutch painting. The basic material concerning Honthorst was first published by Pro- fessor G. J. Hoogewerff in three articles for Onze Kunst in 1917. In this series of articles Professor Hoogewerff established a chronology of Hont- horst’s Italian works and gave some indication of his stylistic development.