Pieter Fris: 13 interesting facts

Pieter Fris (1627 – 1706) was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter.

Fris was born in Amsterdam. According to Houbraken he was a painter of moralistic and fantasy pieces who associated the Bentvueghels in Rome at the juvenile age of 17 behind the nickname Welgemoed (courage) for withstanding his recognition ceremony without flinching. Since his ceremony entailed standing in a circle of firecrackers going off not in the distance off from him, a poem was written practically his courage. Houbraken mentioned that Fris was dismayed about the art profession, though he continued to practise it in Delft in future life. He was mortified because he felt that it wasn’t as honest as other want ad pursuits.

The Fris Bentvueghel creation ceremony tally inspired Houbraken to close the second volume of his three volume Schouburg with a long poem of his own using whatever of the “Bent” nicknames he knew. He expected this poem as a great compliment to anything of the Bentvueghel painters through the ages, quoting his university Samuel van Hoogstraten and referring to the publication upon ancient Roman ruins in 1709 by the Amsterdam publisher Johannes Crellius based upon a set of drawings by Bonaventura van Overbeek (bentname Romulus), engraved by Matthys Pool including scenes of the Bentvueghels in action.

According to the RKD Fris was registered in 1645 in Rome, 1647 in Dordrecht, 1657 in Amsterdam, and became a devotee of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke from 1660-1668. He was animated in Haarlem from 1666–1669, in Amsterdam in 1677, and in Delft in 1688 (he became a aficionado of the Delft Guild of St. Luke in 1683). He died in Delft.