Venus spanking Amor

Constantijn Netscher (The Hague 1668 - The Hague 1724)

He was born in December 1668 in The Hague as the fifth child of the painter Caspar Netscher (c. 1635/36-1684) and his wife, Margaretha Godijn (?-1694). Of his siblings, Theodorus Netscher (1661-1728) and Anthonie Netscher (1679-1713) also became painters. As Constantijn was only sixteen years old when his father died, his training was overseen by his mother, as he reported himself to Van Gool – ‘Me Moêr heeft me schilderen geleert’ (‘My mother taught me to paint’).¹ From 1685 to 1694, he attended the Academie van de Teycken-Const in The Hague, of which he later served as governor.² In addition, in 1686, he became member of the Confrerie Pictura as a ‘master’s son’, the city’s artist society to which he was appointed several times as warden and dean.³

In 1692, the twenty-four-year-old Constantijn had a daughter out of wedlock by Margaretha van Diemen (?-?), but their banns of marriage were suspended on 30 January 1709, when her father was obliged to provide her annual support. Only six days later, on 6 February 1709, he married nineteen-year-old Magdalena van Haensbergen ([?]1690-?), a daughter of the painter Jan van Haensbergen (1642-1705), who was strongly influenced by Caspar Netscher. Only two and a half months later, on 25 April 1709, their first child Sophia, presumably named after Magdalena’s mother, was born.

After the death of his mother in 1694, Constantijn inherited his father’s house in the Spekstraat in The Hague and most of the paintings left by his father. As a portrait painter, Constantijn followed his father’s model; however, his works are marked by a more artificial stance and an advanced state of fashion.

Constantijn died in 1724 and was buried on 27 March in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague, in the tomb of the Van Haensbergen family. He left his widow and four children, Adriana Willemina, Pieter Marinus (who became a merchant and settled in Rotterdam), Constantia and Johanna Maria.

His pupils were Coenrat Roepel (1678-1748), Hendrick Doorschodt (1668-1751), Dirk Kindt (1676-1762) and Mattheus Verheyden (1700-1777), who owned and inscribed several drawings by Netscher family members.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

References
J. van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen, 2 vols., The Hague 1750-51, I (1750), pp. 367-72; G. Hoet, Aanmerkingen op het eerste en tweede deel des Nieuwen Schouburgs der Nederlandsche kunstschilders en schilderessen door Johan van Gool, s.l. [after 1751], pp. 54-55; J.C. Weyerman, De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, IV (1769), pp. 148-53; P.M. Netscher, Geslachtsregister der Familie Netscher met levensschetsen van de schilders Caspar, Theodorus en Constantyn en zeven genealogische tabellen, The Hague 1889, pp. 21-23 (online at https://archive.org/details/geslachtsregiste00unse); A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 229; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXV (1931), pp. 398-99 (entry by R. Fritz); H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1942, p. 274; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XIV (1956), p. 146; A. Blankert, 'Invul-portretten door Caspar en Constantyn Netscher', Oud Holland 81 (1966), no. 4, pp. 263-69; E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Zwolle 1998, pp. 218-23, 332-33; M.E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Doornspijk 2002 (Aetas Aurea: Monographs on Dutch & Flemish Painting, vol. 16), pp. 29, 33, 119-20, 128, 140, 142, 155-59; J. Foucart, 'Casper ou Constantin Netscher? La Rehabilitation inspirée d'un Netscher du Louvre', Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 4 (October 2005), pp. 43-50; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 575; https://rkd.nl/artists/59179