Hendrick de Valk was a promising Dutch genre scene painter, who died already at the age of 35. Seeing here the strong influence of his uncle Richard Brakenburgh and through him of Jan Steen, this must be an early painting. Just like Steen he had a good sense of humour.

 

 

Dutch painter

Leeuwarden 1674 – in or after 1709 probably in Leeuwarden

 

Genre and occasionally portrait painter.

 

Young Hendrick lost first his father, who was a court herald in Leeuwarden, and in 1687, at the age of 13, also his mother. His uncle, the genre and portrait painter Richard Brakenburgh, was assigned as his guardian. Brakenburgh  (Haarlem 1650 – 1702 Haarlem), who had lived in Leeuwarden since 1670, returned that same year (1687) to his native Haarlem and took de Valk, by then probably already his pupil, with him.

 

Leeuwarden was the capital of the northernmost province of the Dutch Republic. Haarlem, some 10 km West of Amsterdam, was a much more important town and artistic centre.

 

Our painter became a member of Haarlem’s Painter’s Guild in 1693. He must have remained in Haarlem until 1702, except for a trip to his native

Leeuwarden in 1699.

From 1702 until 1706 de Valk lived in Franeker, the small university town of Friesland: here he portrayed several of its professors. Three of his children were born and baptized in Franeker.

 

By 1709, at the birth of his son Hendrick, he lived back in Leeuwarden again. He must have died in Leeuwarden that same year or shortly after.

 

De Valk died at the age of 35 or maybe slightly older. That is why not that many paintings are known by him.

 

He was an interesting genre painter. He was clearly influenced by his uncle, Richard Brakenburgh, who in his turn was influenced by Jan Steen. Steen (1625/26 – 1679) worked in Haarlem between 1661 and 1670, which accidentally was the year that Brakenburgh arrived in Leeuwarden. Jan Steen ended his career in his native Leiden. It is thought that Brakenburgh might have worked in his studio.

 

All three - Steen, Brakenburgh and de Valk - painted joyful interior scenes in fresh colours with stunning details and lively figures. Time has had no grip on their artistic production: snapshots of 17th century leisure time and comic sources of delight. Such a depictions of lustful life and the implications of this tempestuous behaviour gave a moral message to 

the town population of the Dutch Republic.

 

 

Because the joie de vivre spats from this typical de Valk composition.