Willem Jacobsz Delff
Encyclopedia
Willem Jacobsz Delff was a Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...

 engraver and painter.

Biography

Delff was born and died in Delft
Delft
Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

. He learned painting from his father, Jacob Willemsz Delff the Elder
Jacob Willemsz Delff
Jacob Willemszoon Delff the Elder, was a portrait painter active in Delft. He is known by a picture of an 'Archery-feast' in the Hotel de Ville at Delft, dated 1592 ; and by a 'Reconciliation of Esau and Jacob,' in the Belvedere at Vienna, bearing the date 1584. He also painted 'The...

, who painted a family portrait with his sons and wife Maria Joachimsdr Nagel. Jacob's sons were all artists in their own right; Cornelis
Cornelis Jacobsz Delff
Cornelis Jacobsz. Delff was a Dutch Golden Age still life painter.-Biography:Delff was born in Gouda. According to Houbraken he was first a pupil of his father Jacob Delff, and then of Cornelis van Haarlem. He was a good painter of still lifes.According to the RKD he became a member of the Delft...

 (top left in the portrait) became a still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

 painter, while Rochus (between Cornelis and his father) became a portrait painter like his father.
Willem married a daughter of Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt
Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt
Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Mierveld or Mireveldt was a Dutch Golden Age painter.-Biography:He was the son of a goldsmith, who apprenticed him to the copperplate engraver Hieronymus Wierix...

 and became a renowned engraver.

Willem's own son, Jacob Willemsz Delff the Younger (14 April 1619 - 12 June 1661), won a lucrative commission from the Delft vroedschap to paint a schutterstuk
Schutterij
Schutterij refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces within the city, near the city walls, but, when the...

in 1652, which was damaged by the Delft Explosion in 1654. Because he and his father were so well respected in Delft, this painting was commissioned to be restored afterwards.
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