Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 5, 1913.djvu/162

SECTION XVIII CASPAR NETSCHER CASPAR NETSCHER was born in 1639 at Heidelberg, where his father, who died young, worked as a sculptor. He died at The Hague, January 15, 1684. When he was two years of age, his mother, already a widow, took refuge with her four children in a castle; when the castle was besieged by the enemy, she fled with the two youngest children, who survived, to Arnhem. Here Arnold Tulleken, a wealthy physician, undertook the charge of Caspar. He intended the boy to follow a medical career ; but when Caspar's talent for drawing became evident, Tulleken gave way and allowed him to learn the elements of art at Arnhem from Herman Coster, a little- known painter of still-life and portraits. 1 Afterwards Netscher went as a pupil to Gerard ter Borch, a distant relative of his guardian. This must have been at latest in 1654, for there exists a copy, dated 1655, by Netscher after his master's "Paternal Advice" (Ter Borch 186), which shows that he had then a complete mastery of the technical side of his art (see No. 102). In the years following Netscher worked for dealers until, in 165 8 or 1659 ne resolved to go to Rome. First of all he took ship for Bordeaux. This first stage of the journey was also the last. He fell in love, married, and soon afterwards returned to Holland with his young wife Marguerite Godin (Godijn) and his eldest son Theodor. In October 1662 he is for the first time mentioned as resident at The Hague, where he can be traced, almost without a break, as living till his death in 1684. At The Hague he had at least eleven more children. Houbraken (iii. 92, etc.) and Roger de Piles {Abrlgb de la Vie des Pelntres^ p. 441, etc.), who were very well informed about the artist, state that Netscher very soon achieved a great reputation, that he painted the portraits of very many famous per- sonages who visited The Hague, and that he declined the invitations of Charles II., King of England, who desired him to go to London. His health was very delicate ; from his twentieth year he suffered from stone, and in his will, dated 1674, he is expressly described as a sick man (Oud 1 Netscher'8 widow preserved till her death in 1694 a sketch-book which he had used at Arnhem (Oud Holland, v. 263). I 4 6