Herman Saftleven

(1609 Rotterdam – 1685 Utrecht)

Herman Saftleven, a painter, draughtsman and etcher, was probably taught first by his father, Herman Saftleven the Elder (d. 1627), and then by his elder brother Cornelis (1607–1681). From 1632 he lived in Utrecht, where he occupied several positions in the ‘Schilderscollege’ between 1655 and 1667 and achieved considerable renown as a landscape painter. Apart from several journeys to the Moselle and the Rhine and a brief stay in the town of Elberfeld in the Rhineland around 1667 the artist lived and worked his whole life in Utrecht.