The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters

The absence from Houbraken's work of several painters who are now much more highly regarded than others he considered noteworthy, is an interesting feature of the work, and reveals changes in taste since his time; the most notorious omission is Jan Vermeer, who is mentioned once in passing. Other notorious omissions are Jan van de Cappelle, Judith Leyster, Jan Wynants, Jacobus Mancadan, and Hendrick Avercamp. While Vermeer, Ruysch, and Leyster are mentioned, they are only briefly touched upon.[2]

However, Houbraken himself died before publishing the final volume, and he repeatedly mentions the impossibility of a complete list. In his first volume he includes painters that he complained were oversights by Karel van Mander, who he regarded as his greatest example. He highly respected all artist biographers who came before him, such as Sandrart, De Bie, and De Lairesse. In fact, Houbraken was quite keen to include painters that he thought were overlooked before him and was quite thorough in his endeavours. Therefore, his omissions are equally the omissions of previous biographers, though it is Houbraken who receives all the blame. The exact state of his book at the time of his death is unknown: his son Jacob, his daughter Antonina, and his wife all helped to patch things up for publication, and it is quite possible that their own opinions slipped into the finished work.

In general, Houbraken tends to follow the contemporary prejudices of the hierarchy of genres and undervalue landscapists, marine artists and painters of still life.

The Houbraken family appeared to manifest certain other prejudices or biases. These may be categorised, broadly, as:

• Family dynasties: All painters who made up a family dynasty received extra space in the book. More space was given to the founder of the dynasty than to any other member (note that Houbraken considered himself the founder of his own family dynasty). An example is that though Rachel Ruysch was the most famous painter of her family, Houbraken devotes more space to her grandfather Pieter Post and his brother Frans. Similarly, though Wouter Crabeth II was the most famous painter of the family, Houbraken devotes more space to his illustrious heritage in Gouda, the glass painters Dirk and Wouter.
• Engravers: Houbraken had a business of his own in biographical engravings, and his large family probably all helped in the business, with his son and daughter helping with the oval portraits. Houbraken was quick to realize the importance of reprints, and used them whenever possible for art provenance. He highly respected good engravings. Therefore he was heavily prejudiced towards artists who were also good draftsmen and engravers, such as Rembrandt and the Visschers. He includes also notes about various publishers and engravers, who did not paint at all.
• Rome: Houbraken had great respect for all artists who took the trouble and overcame many hardships to travel to Rome. He went to great pains to add entries for the entire list of painters mentioned in a poem about the Bentvueghels.
• Flattery: As a Mennonite, Houbraken would have been against flattery; however, he writes again and again of the importance of flattering one's patrons in his books, and a recurring theme is when an artist fell onto bad times because he failed to flatter his patron. This type of artist is admired by Houbraken as a sort of "martyr to the artist's cause". Examples of flatterers that Houbraken deprecates are Anthony van Dyck and Sir Peter Lely followers; his omissions speak for themselves if famous portrait painters of his day such as Adriaen Hanneman, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck and Thomas de Keyser are noted. Similarly, though architecture was considered one of the highest genres, the popular "family portrait with a view of the house or garden" was omitted as a genre entirely from Houbraken's praise, since this just showed off the wealth of the sitters. Thus landscape portraitists were often omitted or deprecated, such as Hendrik van Steenwijk II and his wife.
• Religion: While Houbraken did include artists of all religions in his book, his coreligionist Mennonites are over-represented, while Catholics are under-represented. These include the De Grebbers, the De Brays, the Ruisdael family, Jan Vermeer, Adriaen Coorte, Adriaen Hanneman, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, Hendrick Dubbels, Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen, and Meindert Hobbema. (See Houbraken's story on the Mennonite martyr Jan Woutersz van Cuyck).

Translated, the title of the book is Theatre of Painters and Paintresses, indicating that Houbraken wrote about women painters, or schilderessen. However, the list of women he included in the book is really quite short. Though he included short biographies of many painters who were closely related to women painters, the only paintresses he included by name were:

Of these, he included illustrations of only three women: Schurman, Merian, and Koerten-Blok. Houbraken also mentioned two women poets; Gesina Brit and Catharina Questiers.

The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume I are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text. The first illustration is of Houbraken himself.

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  V1 Titlepage with Otto van Veen
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  Portrait of Arnold Houbraken, by his son Jacob
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  V1 plate A, p 16 Desid. Erasmus. Dav. Joris. Johan Snellings.
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  V1 plate B, p 26 Dirk Crabet. Wouter Crabet.
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  V1 plate C, p 44 Abr. Bloemaart. Ad. Elshaimer. Ad. van Oort.
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  V1 plate D, p 62 P.P. Rubbens. Hendr. van Balen. Roel. Savry.
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  V1 plate E, p 84 Fr. Snyders. Jan Breugel. Korn. Schut.
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  V1 plate F, p 90 Fr. Hals. Wensl. Koebergen. Luc. van Uden. Wybr. de Geest.
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  V1 plate G, p 128 Korn. Poelenburg. Dan. Segers. J. Torentius. P. Valk.
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  V1 plate H, p 154 Jaques Jordaans. Jan van Goijen.
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  V1 plate I, p 164 L. Bramer. Dirk. v. Hoogstraten. Salom. de Bray.
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  V1 plate K, p 183 Ant. van Dyk. Jan de Heem.
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  V1 plate L, p 225 Phil. Champanje. P.J.v. Asch. Jan v. Bronkhorst.
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  V1 plate M, p 272 Ann. Maria Schuurmans. Jak. Bakker. Rembrant.
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  V1 plate N, p 294 Jan Lievens. Palamedes. Erasm. Quellinus.
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  V1 plate O, p 326 Adr. Brouwer. Jurj. Ovens. Korn. Bega.
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  V1 plate P, p 342 Herm. Zachtleven. Korn. Zachtleven. Dav. Teniers.
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  V1 plate Q, p 348 Adriaan van Ostade.
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  V1 plate R, p 358 Ott. Marcelis. Piet. v. Laar. Nikol. de Helt Stokade

Media related to Schouburg I at Wikimedia Commons

The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume II are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text.

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  V2 plate A, p 1 Gerard Dou. Bartolom, vander Helst.
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  V2 plate B, p 19 Govert Flink. Pieter Lely. Philip Koning.
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  V2 plate C, p 79 Jan Bapt. Weeninx. David Beck. Sim. Pet. Tilmans. Hendr. Zorg.
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  V2 plate D, p 96 Aldert van Everdingen. Adam Pynaker.
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  V2 plate E, p 101 Gerbr. vanden Eekhout. Wallerant Vaillant. Jaques Vaillant.
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  V2 plate F, p 127 Paulus Potter. Jakob vander Does.
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  V2 plate G, p 170 Johann. Lingelbag. Samuel van Hoogstraten. Jan van Hoogstraten.
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  V2 plate H, p 179 Hendr. Verschuring. Willem Kalf.
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  V2 plate I, p 245 Ludolf Bakhuizen. Vincent vander Vinne.
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  V2 plate K, p 277 Johan Hendrik Roos. Juriaan van Streek.

Media related to Schouburg II at Wikimedia Commons

The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume III are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text.

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  V3 plate A, p 6 Frans van Mieris. Jan Steen.
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  V3 plate B, p 40 Gerard ter Burg. Gabriel Mitzu. Karel de JardynGillis de Hondekoeter.
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  V3 plate C, p 64 Jan Asselyn. Heyman Dullaart. Jan van Pée. Melch. de Hondekoeter
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  V3 plate D, p 96 Abraham Genoels. Adr. van den Velde.
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  V3 plate E, p 110 Gerard de Laires. Bartolet.
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  V3 plate F, p 164 Jakob Torenvliet. Mich.van Musscher.
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  V3 plate G, p 176 Godefridus Schalken. Philip Tideman.
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  V3 plate H, p 212 Joan de Biskop. Johannes Voorhout,
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  V3 plate I, p 220 Maria Sybille Merian. David vander Plaas.
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  V3 plate K, p 234 Godfried Kneller. Gerard Hoet.
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  V3 plate L, p 248 Mathys Wulfraat. Augustinus ter Westen.
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  V3 plate M, p 282 Johannes Verkolje. Abraham Hondius.
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  V3 plate N, p 294 Johanna Koerten.
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  V3 plate O, p 388 Adriaan vander Werf.
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  V3 plate P, p 189 Casparus Netscher. Job Berckheiden. Gerrit Berckhnden.

Media related to Schouburg III at Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Schouburg I, Schouburg II and Schouburg III.