Hendrick Berckman

1629-1679 Dutch

Elite portraits and small battle scenes

Hendrick Berckman was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He was a pupil of Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert and Jacob Jordaens in Antwerp, and spent some time in Haarlem studying with Philip Wouwermans. He is registered in Leiden from 1652 to 1654, and in 1655 he settled in Middleburg. Though he trained as a landscape painter, he is most known today for his portraits of respected members of the elite. According to Houbraken, he was a promising young painter of "batalje" or small-scale battle-pieces, who was advised by Jacob Jordaens to try making large paintings, which he did.