Albertus Brondgeest

1786–1849, Amsterdam

The painter and draughtsman, Albertus Brondgeest, was a pupil of Pieter Gerardus van Os and Jan Hulswit. Born into a well-to-do family, he was also a successful collector and art dealer, which ensured him considerable financial independence. However, it would be wrong to treat his artistic activities as those of a dilettante. Brondgeest made intensive studies of 17th century Dutch painting and produced copies after masters such as Aelbert Cuyp and Meindert Hobbema, thereby laying the ground for his own artistic development. While he was mostly active as a draughtsman and watercolourist at the outset of his artistic career, he later devoted himself primarily to landscape and marine painting at the suggestion of his friend and teacher, Wouter Johannes van Troostwijk, and achieved considerable fame in this field. In 1814 Brondgeest won the gold medal awarded by the Felix Meritis Society in Amsterdam. He was also a member of the Amsterdam Academy and an active member of the city’s private drawing society Zonder Wet of Spreuk.