Hendrick Terbrugghen

Hendrick Terbrugghen , 1588-1629, Dutch painter, a leading member of the Utrecht school. He was a pupil of the history painter Bloemaert before living (c.1604-14) in Italy. Crowning of Thorns (1620; Copenhagen) is his first known dated work. Like his contemporaries Honthorst and Baburen, he was largely influenced by Caravaggio, although an awareness of Dürer and Lucas van Leyden recurs throughout his work. His intimate and restrained genre compositions foreshadow in coloring the work of Vermeer. Many of Terbrugghen's paintings are nighttime genre scenes. His work is represented in the major European museums. Typical examples are his St. Sebastian (Allen Mus., Oberlin, Ohio), Old Man Writing (Smith College Mus., Northampton, Mass.), and Crucifixion (1620s; Metropolitan Mus.).

Bibliography: See monograph by B. Nicolson (1958).

Terbrugghen, Hendrick (1588?–1629). Dutch painter, one of the earliest and finest exponents of Caravaggism in northern Europe. Born into a Catholic family, he grew up in Utrecht, studied there with Bloemaert, then spent several years in Rome (c.1605–14). On his return to the Netherlands he became with Honthorst the leader of the Caravaggism associated with the Utrecht School. A second journey to Italy, c.1620, has been postulated, as his later works are generally more thoroughly Caravaggesque than his earlier ones. Terbrugghen was chiefly a religious painter, but he also produced some remarkable genre works, notably a pair of paintings of Flute Players (1621, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel), which in their subtle tonality—with dark figures placed against a light background—anticipated by a generation the achievement of painters of the Delft School such as Fabritius and Vermeer. Although he was praised by Rubens, who visited Utrecht in 1627, Terbrugghen was neglected by 18th- and 19th-century collectors and historians. The rediscovery of his sensitive and poetic paintings was part of the reappraisal of Caravaggesque art during the 20th century.

Terbrugghen, Hendrick (or Hendrick ter Brugghen) (b ?The Hague, ?1588; d Utrecht, 1 Nov. 1629). Dutch painter, one of the earliest and finest exponents of Caravaggism in northern Europe. Born into a Catholic family, he grew up in Utrecht (the main Dutch centre of Catholicism), studied there with Bloemaert, then spent several years in Italy (c.1605–14), mainly in Rome, although he also visited other cities. There are no known works by him from this period, his earliest dated painting being the Supper at Emmaus (1616, Toledo Mus. of Art, Toledo, Ohio). On his return to the Netherlands he became with Baburen and Honthorst the leader of the Caravaggism associated with Utrecht (see Utrecht Caravaggisti). A second journey to Italy, c.1620, has been postulated, as his later works are generally more thoroughly Caravaggesque than his earlier ones; however his increased interest in Caravaggio's typical subjects and effects could have been stimulated by Baburen (who returned from Italy in about 1620 and is thought to have shared a studio with Terbrugghen for a time). Terbrugghen was chiefly a religious painter, but he also produced some remarkable genre works, notably a pair of paintings of Flute Players (1621, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel), which in their subtle tonality—with dark figures placed against a light background—anticipated by a generation the achievement of painters of the Delft School such as Fabritius and Vermeer. Although he was praised by Rubens, who visited Utrecht in 1627, Terbrugghen was neglected by 18th- and 19th-century collectors and historians. The rediscovery of his sensitive and poetic paintings was part of the reappraisal of Caravaggesque art during the 20th century.