WATERLOO Anthonie

(Lille 1609 – Utrecht 1690)

Draftsman, engraver and painter born in the north of France from Flemish parents belonging to the Calvinist Christian movement.
Persecuted for religious reasons, they moved to Holland, where first his mother (Magdalena Vaillant) and later himself (1630) became members of the Walloon Church of Amsterdam. Almost nothing is known of the youthful years of Anthonie or where he learnt the drawing and the etching technique, at the point that some considered him self-taught. In 1653 he left his family and the church of Amsterdam to move first to Leeuwarden in Friesland and then to Maarssen, near Utrecht. In 1640 he married Cathalyna van der Dorp who made him the father of six children. He had a good and lasting friendship with Jan Weenix, the well-known and valued painter of still lives and hunting scenes. Weenix often went to visit his house near Maarssen.
During his career, although he preferred graphic art, he performed several noteworthy paintings that were influenced by Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Vermeer van Haarlem II and by other artists who emphasized the natural environment.
In many of his etchings the representation of the rural and wooded landscape prevails. He managed to give breadth and depth to the compostions by a skilful exposure to the corrosive action of the acid on the plate. Often mythological episodes were placed in the scenery of nature highly appreciated at the time by the Nordic aristocracy.
Like other Dutch and Flemish artists who travelled along the course of the great rivers of northern Europe, he sailed up the Elbe course while visiting different cities: Kleef, Bentheim, Hamburg, Altona, Blankenese, Holstein, Bergedorf.
Although he made valuable paintings, his fame remained linked above all to his work as a draftsman and etcher. His graphic production includes many drawings of forests and topographical views, often large, today scattered in important European collections and about one hundred fifty etchings with landscapes characterized by the presence of dense vegetation and large trees.