Willem van Bemmel

1630 Utrecht – 1708 Wöhrd

Willem van Bemmel was the founder of a large and influential dynasty of artists that was active in South Germany until well into the eighteenth century. The artist was born in 1630 in Utrecht and at young age began to study under Cornelis Saftleven in Rotterdam. Around 1647 Bemmel traveled to Italy, where he lived and worked for two years in Venice and then for four years in Rome and Naples. After a further stay in England, Bemmel spent the rest of his life in Germany. He was called to the court of Count Karl of Hessia in Kassel and later worked in Augsburg and Nuremberg. Bemmel painted landscapes exclusively and was praised for this by his contemporary Joachim von Sandrart. His printed oeuvre is fairly small, consisting of only eight sheets, all of which are very rare.