Dutch Painting

Daniel VOSMAER
Delft 1622–1669/70 Den Briel

Daniel Vosmaer was baptized in Delft on October 13, 1622. He was the son of the gold-smith Arent Woutersz Vosmaer (d. 1654) and had three brothers, one of whom was Nicolaes (or Claes; d. 1664), a painter of seascapes, and three sisters. The flower painter Jacob Woutertzs. Vosmaer, was his uncle. It is not known with whom Daniel trained to become a painter but he registered as a master with the Delft Guild of Saint Luke on October 14, I650, paying the usual 6-guilder fee assessed Delft natives. Michael Montias places Vosmaer in Delft in I665, when he is said to have paid 80 guilders' rent.

An interesting series of documents from 1666 concerns a collaboration between Vosmaer and Carel Fabritius. One of these documents, dated July 12, 1666, refers to Vosmaer as living in the town of Den Briel (or Brielle), about eighteen miles southwest of Rotterdam. Daniel's brother Abraham (1618–after 1660), who married a woman from Den Brielin 1643, moved there in 1654. His wife, Adriana de Jong, came from a wealthy family of brewers, and Abraham acquired considerable wealth through his lease on the town's taxation of beer and wine. Daniel seems to have visited them frequently, and eventually he met Annetje Eduwards de Neeif; the widow of the baker Jan Wisse. On August 23, 1661 they were married in the Grate Kerk (Saint Catherine's) in Den Briel. The couple settled in the town and in November of that year Daniel was registered with the local church. He retained his Delft citizenship however. Annetje is mentioned again in a document dated October 1, 1662. Involved like his brother; in the town's taxation of beer and wine, Daniel had a sizable income and maintained close ties with the regents and elite of Den Briel. The couple had five children, Catherijna, Maria, Arent, Anna, and Daniel. Daniel père evidently died shortly before the baptism on May 7, 1670 of his youngest son. A notaries document of January 16 transferred his lease on the taxation of beer and wine to his brother-in-law Reijnier de Neeff and Tonis van der Fuijck.