Anselm van Hulle
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Anselm van Hulle or Anselmus van Hulle[1] (Gent, 1601 - 1674/1694) was a Flemish painter mainly of portraits whose works were highly prized at the Northern European Courts.[2] He was court painter to the Prince of Orange and was one of the few portrait painters who attended the peace negotiations for the Peace of Münster in 1648. Van Hulle established an international reputation by having the portraits he made of the delegates at the negotiations engraved and published.[3]
Anselm van Hulle was baptized in the St. Bavo Church in Gent on 23 July 1601. He was the son of Egidius van Hulle.[4] He may have been a pupil of Gaspar de Crayer, a leading Baroque painter from Antwerp working mainly in Brussels. A training with such a prominent painter was relatively expensive. Van Hulle came from a wealthy family owning various lands and annuities, which he had partially inherited, and was thus able to afford the cost of such a training should it in effect have taken place.[5]
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Van Hulle became a master in the Guild of St. Luke of Gent in 1620. He probably made a trip to Italy in 1631 but was back in Gent in the same year.[2] He married on 14 December 1631 with Livina of Thuyne. The couple had four children, who were all baptized in the St. Bavo Church.[4] It is not clear when he moved to the Dutch Republic. He became court painter to the Dutch stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Van Hulle made various portraits of persons of the Orange dynasty. The Prince sent him in 1645 or 1646 to Münster to make portraits of the delegates who attended the peace negotiations for the Peace of Münster.[3] Van Hulle established a large workshop in Münster to make the portraits and copies of the same.[6] The Flemish painter Jan-Baptist Floris was likely initially an employee of van Hulle’s workshop and later started working for his own account by making portraits mostly based on van Hulle's work.[7] Floris is recorded as having received a commission for 34 portrait paintings of the delegates for the Münster Town Council at a price of ten thalers. Van Hulle typically charged 10 ducats (20 thalers) for a bust painted by himself.
Van Hulle’s workshop produced many copies of the delegates' portraits which were often acquired by the delegates themselves and by the local councils of cities in the region where the peace talks were held such as Münster and Osnabrück.[6] Van Hulle was active as an art dealer during his residence in Münster. He left Münster for a while in 1647 to attend to an inheritance matter in the family of his wife.[5]
After the conclusion of the peace negotiations in Münster, van Hulle followed the delegates to Nuremberg where the debriefings took place in 1649.[2] His patron Frederick Henry died the same year. He travelled to Kassel in 1650 and was active at the Dresden court in 1651. He probably also worked at other courts in the region. From 1652 he was active in Vienna where he entered the service of Emperor Ferdinand III. The emperor gave him a peerage on 27 August 1652. The Emperor sent him to Gottorf Castle in 1653 to paint a portrait of Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. He then returned to Vienna.
The last known record about van Hulle relates to his administration of the estate of Livina van den Tuyne (died 19 March 1673) for which he appeared before a notary in Gent, together with his son Pieter.[5]
