Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598 – 1657)

• Was a Dutch Golden Age painter of Italian and Italianate landscapes, in Rome (1619-1630) and Amsterdam (1630-1657).
• According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), Breenbergh was born in the Netherlands town of Deventer.

• His registered teachers are Pieter Lastman and Jacob Symonsz Pynas.

• Breenbergh is first registered as a painter on an archival record in 1619 in Amsterdam.

• In the same year he left for Rome.

• There he lived and worked with the Flemish painter Frans van de Kasteele. 

• From 1623, he came under the spell of Italian landscapes by the somewhat older Cornelis van Poelenburgh—indeed, the works of Breenbergh and van Poelenburgh are sometimes difficult to tell apart.

• Breenbergh in his turn influenced the French landscape-painter Claude Lorrain.

• In about 1620 Breenbergh became one of the founders of the Roman society of Dutch and Flemish painters, the Bentvueghels, among whom he was nicknamed "het fret" (the ferret).

• In 1630 Breenbergh returned to Amsterdam.

• In 1633 he married, and received a yearly wage of 60 pounds from the court of king Charles I of Britain.

• He remained in Amsterdam until his death, where he made popular paintings and etchings of Italian buildings.

• His only registered pupil is Jan de Bisschop.

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