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Rombout Verhulst
Dutch, 1624 - 1698
Flemish sculptor, active in the Netherlands. He studied in Mechelen with Rombout Verstappen (d 1636) and Frans van Loo ( fl 1607–35) and perhaps also with Lucas Faydherbe. In 1646 he moved to Amsterdam, where he later worked under Artus Quellinus (e.g. portrait bust, Artus Quellinus, Utrecht, Cent. Mus.) on the decoration of the Amsterdam Stadhuis (now Royal Palace); at some point between 1646 and 1654 he may have made a trip to Italy. For the Stadhuis, Verhulst executed the figure of Venus and reliefs of Fidelity and Silence (before 1658) for its galleries and produced terracotta studies (c. 1655; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.) for the griffiersstoel (bench of the court clerk) and bronze doors of the Vierschaar (tribunal). In 1658 Verhulst was living in Leiden, where he was involved in decorative projects for Pieter Post’s Waag (Weighhouse), including the marble relief The Butter-seller (1662; in situ). By 1663 he had moved to The Hague, where he became a member of the Guild of St Luke in 1668 and of the Academy ‘Pictura’ in 1676.
After Quellinus’s return to Antwerp in 1665, Verhulst became the most prominent sculptor working in the Netherlands; he produced portrait busts, funerary monuments, garden statuary and small-scale works in ivory. His portraits eloquently capture the personality of his sitters: especially notable are the naturalistic pair of busts of Willem, Baron van Liere and Maria van Reygersberg (terracotta, c. 1663–70; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), while the bust of Jacob van Reygersberg (1671; Malibu, CA, Getty Mus.) is a good example of his marble-carving technique.
Verhulst created a number of important funerary monuments, including the marble table tombs with recumbent effigies of the scholar Johan Polyander Kerkhoven (1663; Leiden, St Peter) and of Willem van Liere and Maria van Reygersberg (1663; Katwijk aan den Rijn, Hervormde Kerk). His sensitive handling of physiognomy and graceful treatment of drapery also appear in his marble wall tombs for Dutch naval heroes, including those of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (1658; Delft, Oude Kerk; designed by Jacob van Campen; naval relief by Willem de Keyser), Jan van Galen (1654; designed by Artus Quellinus (i); naval relief by Willem de Keyser) and Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter (1677–81; both Amsterdam, Nieuwe Kerk). Other works attributed to Verhulst include several garden statues, such as Prudence and Destiny (sandstone, c. 1660–65; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.) and ivory carvings such as the medallion Portrait of a Young Man.
Although Verhulst owed a stylistic debt to Quellinus, he did not fully share Quellinus’s classicizing tendencies; his works are conceived with greater warmth and executed with greater delicacy, exhibiting similarities to those of Antwerp sculptors in the circle of Rubens, including Hans van Mildert and Lucas Faydherbe. Verhulst’s works in wood, stone, ivory and above all marble are admirable for their sensitive modelling and subtle rendering of textures, as well as for their skilful disposition of Baroque compositional devices. He is widely considered to be the foremost Flemish marble-carver of the 17th century.
Cynthia Lawrence. "Verhulst, Rombout." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T088822 (accessed May 8, 2012).
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