Sir Balthazar Gerbier

TerryF on 30 May 2006   Link to this

Sir Balthasar Gerbier, born c1591 in Middleburg [d 1667], acquired his artistic training in Germany, and came over to England with the Dutch ambassador in 1616 as an architect, decorator, portraitist and general art adviser. He was engaged by the Duke of Buckingham to advise upon and negotiate the formation of his vast art collections, to decorate his houses, and almost certainly to build York House. After the Duke’s death in 1628, he was naturalised and entered the service of Charles I as an envoy to the Netherlands, a role for which he was knighted in 1638. In addition to practising as an artist, he wrote numerous pamphlets and in 1649 opened an Academy which offered instruction in a variety of subjects from art to courtly manners. Counsel and Advice is prefaced by forty dedicatory epistles to the good and the great, of which Pepys wrote “are more than the book itself; and both it and them not worth a turd that I am ashamed that I bought it.” http://www.kenspelman.com/lists/art-technique.htm