Esaias van de Velde

Esaias van de Velde was baptized in Amsterdam on 17 May 1587; his parents had fled to the Northern Netherlands from Antwerp in 1585. He probably studied first with his father, Hans van de Velde, a painter and art dealer, then with the landscape artist Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607), and possibly with David Vinckboons. Esaias was in Haarlem by 1609, and, together with Willem Buytewech (ca. 1591/2-1624) and Hercules Segers, joined the artists' guild of St. Luke in 1612. Esaias moved to The Hague in 1618, and died in that city in November 1630. Esaias van de Velde was a draftsman, painter, and etcher of landscapes, cavalry battles, and genre scenes. In the early 1610s, he played a leading role in the development of a more naturalistic landscape style in the Netherlands, a style committed to recording the native Dutch scene. Among his pupils and followers was Jan van Goyen, whose early works much resemble his.