Willem Troost: 16 cool facts

Wilhelmus, or Willem Troost (1684, Amsterdam – 1752, Amsterdam), was an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands.

According to the RKD he was a pupil of Johannes Glauber during the year 1704-1709 and became court painter in Dusseldorp in 1712. He as a consequence worked in Keulen, Duisburg & Kleef, before returning to the Netherlands and spending become old in Haarlem from 1735-1745 before touching to Amsterdam. He is known for Italianate landscapes and interior decorations.

He married the painter Jacoba Maria van Nickelen, with whom he possibly travelled to Dusseldorp to become court painters for Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. According to Jan van Gool he had been the sixth of seven sons and was first apprenticed to a clerk for 8 years since becoming a pupil of Glauber. He and his wife eventually had 8 children, of whom two were yet alive behind Van Gool was writing; a daughter who was a clever musician and a son who was a good draughtsman and who intended patterns for silk fabrics. He is not to be mortified with Willem Troost (1812-1893).