oucheron Frederik de
(Emden, Germany 1633 - Amsterdam 1686)
A Hawking Party at the Foot of an Ornamental Staircase, with a Mountainous Landscape beyond
Biography
Frederik de Moucheron was born into a Dutch family of artists of French descent. Both Frederik de Moucheron and his son Isaac de Moucheron (1667-1744) specialized in Italianate landscape views with park-like settings. These were particularly used to decorate the walls in houses of the well-to-do in Amsterdam.
After training with Jan Asselijn in Amsterdam, he settled and worked in France for several years, where in 1656 he was recorded as staying in Paris and Lyon. He returned to Amsterdam after a brief period in Antwerp. In 1659 he married Marieke de Jouderville, daughter of the painter Isaac de Jouderville; they had 12 children. Frederik was strongly influenced by the work of the second generation of Dutch italianates, particularly Asselijn and Jan Both. His landscapes also show similarities with the late work of Adam Pynacker. Dirck Helmbreker, Johannes Lingelbach, Adriaen van de Velde and Nicolaes Berchem all provided staffage for his paintings.
De Moucheron’s work is appreciated primarily for its picturesque, decorative qualities, his paintings often rendered attractively atmospheric by use of silvery touches (e.g. Italianate Landscape, 1670s; Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum). Towards the end of his life he painted landscapes for three saletkamer walls in a doll’s house, which was made and furnished in Amsterdam for Adam Oortmans and Petronella de la Court between c. 1674 and 1690 (Utrecht, Central Museum). These show how such landscape wall panels would have looked in situ, although to find an actual room so decorated as early as this would have been rare. In 1678 and 1679 he completed, with Berchem, several works by Willem Schellinks, who had died in 1678.
Collections
De Moucheron is represented in the following collections: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; National Gallery, London; Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig; Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover; State Museums of Florence, Italy; Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Irkutsk Regional Art Museum, Russia, amongst others.