The multigenerational and cross-national artist family Verelst (c. 1618-1752): The myth of Cornelius and Maria

The number of practising artists in the multigenerational Verelst family in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has led to confusion as to their identification, partly because of the repetition of names between generations. Pieter Verelst (c. 1618-1668) worked in Dordrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague and possibly London, training several of his sons, certainly Herman (1641-1699), Simon (1644-1717?), John (1648-1679), and possibly William (1651-1702). By the mid 1660s, Pieter, Herman, Simon and John were active in the Low Countries but struggling financially. Pieter and Simon emigrated to London with John following via France. Herman worked in Venice, Ljubljana, and Vienna (where he and his family had to flee ahead of the Turkish siege of 1683) before settling into a successful career in London. Four of Herman’s children became portraitists. John (c. 1670-1734) was initially successful as a court painter but failed to maintain his position, ending in bankruptcy. Michael (c. 1675-1752) became a provincial artist in Nottingham. Lodvick (1668-1704) was also a portraitist. Adriana (c. 1683-1769) was successful with commissions from the aristocracy and landed gentry; an unsuccessful marriage deprived her of wealth but she received a generous legacy from a friend which compensated. One of Pieter’s great grandchildren, William (1704-1752), was the last of the artistic line. Like his father, John (c. 1670-1734), he had a career with some success as a portraitist with commissions from the East India Company and the Georgia Trustees as well as landed gentry, although it ended in bankruptcy. Literature from Weyerman in 1729 onwards refers to two other artists in the family: ‘Cornelius’ and a female artist at first named as ‘N. Verelst’ or ‘Mlle Verelst’ but eventually named as ‘Maria Verelst’ by Bryan in 1816. There is no contemporary evidence for either under those names: it is argued that they are mis-namings of William (1651-1702) and Adriana respectively.