Caspar Netscher

Caspar (or Gaspar) Netscher (1639 – January 15, 1684) was a Dutch painter. He was a master in depicting oriental rugs, silk and brocade and introduced an international style to the Northern Netherlands.

Life According to Arnold Houbraken's 17th-century biographical study of Dutch painters he was born in Heidelberg or Prague. His father Johann Netscher was a sculptor from Stuttgart. The elder Netscher married Elizabet Vetter, the daughter of a mayor in Heidelberg, against her father's wishes. when Caspar was two years of age. It has been suggested that Caspar may have been the son of a Rotterdam painter. When Heidelberg was attacked during the civil war, Caspar's mother fled with four children to an estate outside the city. In 1668 he joined the Schutterij and Cosimo III de' Medici, traveling through the Netherlands bought four paintings.

It is likely that Netscher knew the painters Frans van Mieris, Sr. (1635?–1681) and Gerard Dou, but it is certain that he knew the painter Gerrit de Hooch from The Hague as his wife gave her name to Gerrit's new born daughter Margarita in 1676, the event being witnessed by Caspar as well as his wife. He was patronized by William III, and his earnings soon enabled him to gratify his own taste by depicting musical and conversational pieces.

It was in these that Netscher's genius was fully displayed. The choice of these subjects, and the habit of introducing female figures, dressed in glossy satins, were imitated from Ter Borch; they possess easy yet delicate pencilling, brilliant and correct colouring, and pleasing light and shade; but frequently their refinement passes into weakness. The painter was gaining both fame and wealth when he began to suffer from gout and took to his bed, where he continued to paint lying down and died prematurely in 1684, in The Hague.

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