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Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst, Musical Company at a Balustrade

Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst (or Bronchorst, Bronkhorst) (1603, Utrecht - November or December 1661, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver. He is considered today to be a minor member of the Utrecht Caravaggisti group.

[edit] Biography

According to Houbraken, van Bronckhorst apprenticed as an eleven-year-old with the glass engraver Verburgh in Utrecht. He worked with him for 6 months and worked with two other Utrecht glassworkers before embarking on a Grand Tour in 1620. He did not get far before he was offered work in Arras by the glassworker Peeter Matthys. After six months, he continued on to Paris in 1620, where he worked with the glassworker Chamu. He returned to Utrecht in 1622, where Cornelis Poelenburg taught him to paint^[1]. He married Catalijntje van Noort in 1626. He frequented the studio of Gerard van Honthorst. In 1647 he moved to Amsterdam where he created the stained glass windows and the organ doors (almost the only area in a Calvinist church where figuative painting was sometimes allowed) of the Nieuwe Kerk (finished in 1655). Described as the last church stained glass painters in Holland ^[2]. Unlike his work for churches, his secular paintings show the influence of Caravaggio, and also show a striking appeal to sensuality^[3] .