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Paulus Moreelse
Dutch, 1571 - 1638
Dutch painter, draughtsman, architect and urban planner. He was from a well-to-do family, which settled in Utrecht c. 1568. According to van Mander, Paulus studied with the Delft portrait painter Michiel van Mierevelt and was in Italy before 1596, the year he became an independent master in the saddlemakers’ guild, to which Utrecht painters then belonged. On 8 June 1602 he married Antonia Wyntershoven, by whom he had at least ten children. The most famous of his many pupils was Dirck van Baburen, who studied with him in 1611, when the Utrecht artists set up their own Guild of St Luke. Moreelse was instrumental in this and became its first dean. In 1618, after a series of political disagreements, a number of citizens, including Moreelse and the painter Joachim Wtewael, petitioned the town council to resign. When that occurred, Moreelse became a member of the new council and continued to hold various public offices until his death. He was a strong supporter of plans to found a university in Utrecht and was closely involved in the preparations and in its opening in 1636, even designing the cap presented to graduating students.
Moreelse’s most important architectural design (known from drawings and prints, Zeist, Rijksdienst Mnmtz.) was for the Catherijnepoort (1621–5; destr.), one of the town gates. With this impressive structure he introduced the Italianate style into Utrecht. In 1624 he presented plans for the town’s expansion to the council, which rejected them. His son Hendrick Moreelse, law professor at Utrecht University and a burgomaster of the town, implemented them posthumously in 1663.
Moreelse’s earliest dated portrait painting is a Portrait of a Man (1602; ex-E. Hahr priv. col., Stockholm; see de Jonge, fig.). In the following year he painted a Militia Company (1603; untraced) for the headquarters of the archers’ company in Amsterdam and in 1616 another of the same title for the headquarters of the crossbowmen’s civic guard company (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.). As a consequence of his political activities, he received important commissions from the start of his career. Many eminent figures had their portraits painted by him or owned work of his. On 6 April 1627 the States of Utrecht resolved to present Prince Frederick Henry and his bride Amalia van Solms with one painting by Cornelis van Poelenburch, one by Roelandt Savery and two by Moreelse, these being A Shepherd (1627; Schwerin, Staatl. Mus.) and A Shepherdess (untraced). According to an inventory drawn up in 1632–4, five of Frederick Henry’s c. 100 paintings were by Moreelse, whose many commissions from court circles included portraits of Herzog Christian von Brunswick-Lüneburg (1619; Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Mus.) and Sophia Hedwig, Countess of Nassau Dietz, as Caritas, with her Children (‘Charity’, 1621; Apeldoorn, Pal. Het Loo; see [not available online]). This striking painting, a good example of a portrait historié or combination of portrait and allegory, makes a remarkable contrast to the formal life-size portrait of the same woman, Sophia Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1611; London, Hampton Court, Royal Col.), that Moreelse had painted ten years previously. Apart from the court and nobility, he portrayed persons of his own circle, for example the Utrecht artist Abraham Bloemaert (1609) and the scholar and close friend Arnhout van Buchell (1610; both Utrecht, Cent. Mus.). Several of his surviving portraits are of fellow town councillors, such as Philips Ram (1625; Utrecht, Cent. Mus.) and Anthonie van Mansfelt (1636; Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.).
Moreelse’s best paintings of mythological subjects include Venus and Adonis (1622; Stuttgart, Staatsgal.), Venus and Cupid (1630; St Petersburg, Hermitage), Cimon and Pero (1633; Edinburgh, N.G.) and Paris Holding the Apple (1638; Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.). Most notable among his religious paintings are the Beheading of John the Baptist (1618; Lisbon, Mus. N. A. Ant.) and Allegorical Representation of Piety (1619; ex-C. J. K. van Aalst priv. col., Hoevelaken; see de Jonge, fig.). He was one of the earliest painters of arcadian scenes, a genre that originated in Utrecht, producing his first shepherds and shepherdesses in 1622 and continuing to paint similar scenes throughout his career. Exceptionally attractive among the many that survive is the Portrait of Two Children in Pastoral Dress (1622; The Hague, Rijksdienst Beeld. Kst, on loan to Utrecht, Cent. Mus.).
Moreelse also made a number of drawings, which date primarily to his early period (e.g. Judgement of Solomon, before 1600; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.). Only a few engravings made after works or designs by him survive; two chiaroscuro prints of 1612 are attributed to him: Cupid and Two Women (Berlin, Kupferstichkab.) and the Death of Lucretia (Utrecht, Cent. Mus.).
Paulus’s sister Maria married the sculptor Willem Colijn de Nole (d 1620), and three of his own children became artists—his sons Johannes (Pauwelsz.) Moreelse (after 1602–34) and Benjamin (Pauwelsz.) Moreelse (before 1629–49) and a daughter—as did his nephew Willem Moreelse (1618/23–66).
J. A. L. de Meyere. "Moreelse, Paulus." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T059549 (accessed May 8, 2012).
Person TypeIndividual
Flemish, 1575 - 1632
