Pieter Claesz Soutman (1593-1601 – 16 August 1657)[ Pieter Claesz. Soutman in the RKD] was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker from Haarlem.
Biography
Soutman was born and died in
Haarlem, where he was a contemporary of
Frans Hals, Hendrick Gerritsz Pot, and
Pieter Claesz, and seems to have been influenced by all three, considering the various attributions of his paintings through the centuries. According to the RKD, he was the youngest of six children of the wealthy Catholic owner of the Haarlem beer brewery
De Werelt.
[
According to Houbraken, Soutmann trained with Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp. He must have been successful, because Samuel Ampzing mentions him in his poem about Haarlem.][ Pieter Soutman biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature][Ampzing states he became the painter of the Prussian majesty due to his fame:Hoe zou hier ook de naam van Soutman zyn verzwegen,
Die door zyn kloek penceel, zig heeft dien staat verkregen,
Zig heeft door zyne Konst die eer en roem bereit,
Dat hy de Schilder is der Pruische Majesteit.] Probably during Prince Władysław Vasa's visit to Antwerp in 1624, he was recommended by Rubens as an excellent painter.[ ]Jerzy Malinowski (1993). 837100088X, National Museum in Warsaw. 837100088X
That same year he went to Poland, where he was appointed royal court painter.
Legacy
One of his portraits that he painted for the Beresteijn family (regents of both the Beresteijn and Codde hofjes) was later sold as a Frans Hals to the Louvre in the 1860s, but this was not from deception, but ignorance on the part of the hofje regents. This sale was considered a scandal in the Dutch press at the time, and Conrad Busken Huet wrote that the government should keep this national treasure in the country (he was living in Haarlem at the time).
Soutman's work hangs today in various museums, and in the Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. His pupils were Cornelis Visscher, Jacob Louys (1595-na 1635), and Pieter van Sompel.
Soutman Sigismund III Vasa in coronation robes.jpg|Portrait of Sigismund III of Poland in coronation robes, 1626
Portrait of the Wife of Alexander van der Capellen by Pieter Claesz Soutman.jpg|Portrait of Amilia van Zuylen van Nyevelt vrouwe van Aartsbergenthe, wife of Alexander van der Capellen, 1626
Pieter Claesz. Soutman - Portrait of a Woman.jpg| Portrait of an unknown woman ca. 1630
Pieter Soutman - Cloveniers Haarlem 1642.jpg|Civic guard (schutterstuk) in Haarlem, 1642
See also
-
Peter Danckerts de Rij, another Dutch Golden Age painter at the Polish court.
