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for Michiel van Musscher
Michiel van Musscher
Dutch, 1645 - 1705
Dutch painter and printmaker. According to Houbraken, van Musscher received his eclectic artistic training in Amsterdam, studying first with the history painter Martinus Zaagmolen (c. 1620–69) in 1660, then with Abraham van den Tempel in 1661, followed by lessons with Gabriel Metsu in 1665. He completed his studies in 1667 in the studio of Adriaen van Ostade. The following year van Musscher returned briefly to Rotterdam before settling permanently in Amsterdam.
Van Musscher’s earliest dated painting, Adriaen Corver and Rijckje Theulingh (1666; Warsaw, N. Mus.), is a simple and sensitive double portrait reminiscent of works by Gerard ter Borch. During the 1660s he produced both portraits and genre paintings; notable among the latter are representations of ladies with their maids and scholars in their studies, variously showing the influences of Metsu, van Ostade, Nicolaes Maes, Frans van Mieris and Johannes Vermeer. By the 1670s van Musscher was painting almost exclusively portraits. The most striking of these, such as the portrait of Thomas Hees (1687; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), retain an aspect of genre painting by depicting the sitter in his own environment, surrounded by everyday attributes that visually amplify his identity. Among these are several portraits of artists in their studios, including Willem van de Velde the Younger in his Studio (c. 1665–7; England, Lord Northbrook priv. col., see Treasure Houses of Britain, exh. cat., ed. G. Jackson-Stops; Washington, DC, N.G.A., 1985, no. 305), and a series of self-portraits dating from 1669 (Moscow, Pushkin Mus. F.A.) to 1692 (Florence, Uffizi) and possibly later. In style, technique and composition these self-portraits trace van Musscher’s development from a simple craftsman to an elegant and sophisticated artist. Many of his late works are characterized by a cool, hard, almost metallic tone.
Eight prints by van Musscher are known, all of them portraits: five mezzotints (e.g. Self-portrait in a Frame with Allegories, 1685), two engravings (e.g. Joost van den Vondel ) and an etching ( Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen, 1673). Among his pupils were Ottmar Elliger II and Dirck van Valkenburg (1675–1721). The contents of van Musscher’s studio were auctioned a year after his death on 12 April 1706.
Marjorie E. Wieseman. "Musscher, Michiel van." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T060586 (accessed May 8, 2012).
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