Ludolf Backhuysen

Ludolf Backhuysen first worked as clerk in an Amsterdam trading house and as a calligrapher. After two prominent marine painters taught him to paint, however, he decided to follow in their path. Backhuysen was never a starving artist. His third wife was in the silk business and left him a large fortune at her death; two years later he married a prosperous merchant’s daughter. In 1663, Backhuysen joined the Amsterdam Guild of Painters and soon thereafter became the leading marine painter in Holland with his energetic paintings of military battles and Amsterdam’s mercantile trade.