Hendrik van der Borcht the elder

Hendrik van der Borcht the Elder or Hendrick van der Borcht the Elder (1583 - 26 July 1651 ) was a Flemish-German engraver and painter of portraits, still lifes of antiquities, flowers and fruit and landscapes. He was also an eminent antiquarian. He was mainly active in Germany to which his family had emigrated for religious reasons.

Life Hendrik van der Borcht was born in Brussels as the son of Hendrick and Elisabeth Notemans. His father was in 1581 councilman of the city council of Brussels. This council was controlled by Calvinists since the end of 1577 following an uprising against his Catholic sovereign, King Philip II of Spain. It is not clear whether his father was part of the radical Calvinists who had rejected Francis, Duke of Anjou, as the new sovereign of the Low Countries. Van der Borcht's Mountain landscape with a big tree (Historical Museum, Frankfurt) is a small scale painting on copper. It shows a rocky river landscape dominated by a mighty tree that rises slightly to the left of the central axis. The tree stands with its visible, spreading root system slightly overhanging the edge of a ridge, which leads from the left foreground into the deep. On the right the terrain as well as the gorge and the towering mountain drop away sharply into a deep river valley. Two travelers with pointed hats and walking sticks are the only living creatures in the scene. The picture demonstrates in the landscape's layout as well as its small-figure staffage the influence of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), who had created similar compositions in Rome around 1595.

Van der Borcht painted a few still lifes painted on copper representing collections of antique statutes, objects and coins. One (Hermitage, Leningrad) is a large composition in a circular format showing a complex collection of statues, medals, coins, vases and a bowl, against a dark green ground. A second (Historisches Museum, Frankfurt) is in horizontal format. It shows antique sculptures, coins, cameos and simple vessels distributed on a tablecloth. Several items reappear in more than one of these still lifes, such as the bust of a scowling man which is depicted in both the Frankfurt and Hermitage still lifes, and several of the classically-styled cameos. This makes it likely that the artist painted them after an actual collection, possibly his own.