Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten

Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten (21 April 1630 – 10 July 1700) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of still lifes and genre scenes.

Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten
Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten (Abraham Bloteling)
Born	Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten April 21, 1630 Haarlem
Died	July 10, 1700 (aged 70) London
Nationality	Netherlands
Known for	Painting
Movement	Baroque

Biography

The proposal.

He was a student of Frans Hals and married Hals' daughter Adriaentje in 1654.[1] He lived with his wife in Amsterdam before moving to London in 1666 where he later was wounded in the hip during the great fire of London, an injury that caused him to walk with a limp the rest of his life.[1][2]

In his biographical sketch of Roestraten, Houbraken relates a popular anecdote that his wife Adriaentje as a baby once defecated on Adriaen Brouwer, who was a young pupil of Frans Hals at the time and had been asked to babysit. When this happened, Brouwer promptly pulled down his pants and did the same to the baby. When Mrs. Hals came in and asked what he was doing, he responded that they were shitting each other.[2][3]

Houbraken claims he was so good at painting portraits and silver, that Sir Peter Lely made a deal with him to stick to painting silver rather than portraits (which was his specialty) and this Roestraten did, earning forty to fifty pounds sterling for a piece. When his first wife died he remarried, but died soon afterwards. He influenced Christian Berentz and Robert Robinson.[1]

References

1. RKD entry for Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten
2. Roestraten biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
3. QUOTE...vraagde wat hy deé? die hy tot antwoord gaf: Wy beschyten malkander.-UNQUOTE