Johan van Brosterhuysen

Johan (Jan) van Brosterhuysen, also spelled "Brosterhuisen" (ca. 1596[lower-alpha 1] – 1650) was a Dutch botanist, engraver, writer, and translator. At age 14 he was registered as a gownsman on 3 June 1610 at Leiden University, his native city. His interest was botany, but he was unable to acquire a teaching position in that field and took a position as secretary at Heusden Castle. Having moved to Amersfoort he became interested (under the influence of Jacob van Campen) in architecture, until his college friend Constantijn Huygens got him a position as professor of botany and literature in a newly founded academy in Breda; he was also keeper of the botanical garden. He died in Breda in September 1650.[2]

A member of the Muiderkring,[3] the arts and sciences coterie whose central figure was P. C. Hooft, he was known as a "dilettante"[4] with an interest in natural philosophy (the work of Francis Bacon[5]) and a classical scholar,[1] and his interest in literature is proven in his scattered poems,[2] one of which a translation of Petrarch's Sonnet 213, "Grazie ch’a pochi il ciel largo destina".[6] He translated from English as well, and his translation of Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone went through six printings between 1645 and 1700.[7]

Van Brosterhuysen made a number of important friends, including people such as the humanist and theologian Caspar Barlaeus and poet P. C. Hooft,[2] and especially Huygens, a poet and composer and secretary to princes of the House of Orange: In 1634, he was able to cure (perhaps with a botanical remedy) Huygens's wife of kidney stones, and a Latin poem by Huygens dated 1627 thanks Brosterhuysen for advising him on horticultural matters. He is credited with sixteen landscape etchings made, apparently, at Randenbroek, the country estate of artist and architect Jacob van Campen near Amersfoort.[8] His landscapes display "with a distinctive sensibility towards trees and foliage and few indications of human presence".[9]

References

Notes
  1. His birthyear is also given as 1598.[1]

Citations
  1. Keyes, George S. (1975). Cornelis Vroom: Marine and Landscape Artist. Vol. 1. Alphen aan den Rijn. p. 107.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Frederiks, J. G.; Branden, Jos. van den (1888–1891), "Brosterhuysen, Johan van", Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde, Amsterdam: Veen
  3. Kauffmann, Hans (1920). "Rembrandt und die Humanisten vom Muiderkring". Jahrbuch der Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen. 41: 46–81. JSTOR 25169850.
  4. Ackley, Clifford S. (1981). Printmaking in the age of Rembrandt. Vol. 20. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts. p. 191. ISBN 9780878461967.
  5. Rees, Graham (2002). "Reflections on the Reputation of Francis Bacon's Philosophy". Huntington Library Quarterly. 65 (3/4): 379–94. JSTOR 3817980.
  6. Scheltema de Heere, J. H. (1906). "Muziekgeschiedenis: David Padbrouck en Cornelis Padbrué". Tijdschrift der Vereeniging voor Noord-Nederlands Muziekgeschiedenis. 8 (2): 109–45. doi:10.2307/947598. JSTOR 947598.
  7. Schoneveld, Cornelis W. (1983). Intertraffic of the Mind: Studies in Seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch Translation with a Checklist of Books Translated from English Into Dutch, 1600-1700. Brill Archive. p. 113. ISBN 9789004069428.
  8. Held, Julius S. (1991). "Constantijn Huygens and Susanna van Baerle: A Hitherto Unknown Portrait". The Art Bulletin. 73 (4): 653–68. doi:10.2307/3045835. JSTOR 3045835.
  9. Hartzer, Kristina Nguyen (1992). "The Made Landscape: City and Country in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Prints". Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin. 1 (1): 1–3, 5, 7–47. JSTOR 4301455.
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