Lieven Willemsz Coppenol

Lieven Willemsz van Coppenol (ca. 1599 – after June 1671) was a Dutch calligrapher and graphic designer best known today for his portrait and etchings by Rembrandt.

He was born in Leiden as the son of Willem Willemsz. van Coppenol (ca 1570-1636) and Engeltie Willemsdr (ca 1570-1646), who temporarily moved to Leiden but decided for unknown reason to return to Haarlem. His grandfather, a Mennonite came from Thielt (Flanders) and fled to Haarlem in 1579. His father, "Maitre Guillaume", was a French schoolmaster between 1611 and 1630 but became blind. By 1619 Lieven had moved to Amsterdam and married Maritje or Mayke Teunis van Essen, a widow with four children, both Mennonites. She was 20 years older and ran a private school, nowadays Singel 234. The couple had two sons called Lieve and Pieter, born in 1623 and 1624. (For obvious reasons all the births are not registered.)

His wife died in 1643 and Lieven remarried in 1644 to Grietje Andries Schaepherder; in September he sold the house (and the school) for 18,000 guilders to his neighbor, David Rutgers, a mennonite silk trader. Coppenol lived at Molenpad near Keizersgracht, where his wife died in May 1661. Besides teaching, he travelled to clients to sell his work, pulling a hand cart with writing examples for inspiration. His son Lieven Coppenol, who managed the belongings of his father, was buried June 1671 in Westerkerk.