Famous Dutch Artists & Painters

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter and is said to be one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. However, he was not commercially successful in his lifetime and died by suicide at 37 after years of mental health issues and poverty. He gained recognition and respect in the 20th century.

Rembrandt was a Dutch printmaker, painter, and draughtsman. A master in three major art media, Rembrandt is widely considered the most important visual artist in Dutch art history and one of the greatest of all time. He is also considered the greatest etcher in the history of printmaking. His life and work inspired several films, including the 1936 movie Rembrandt.

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter renowned for his use of light in paintings. Although he did not achieve fame during his lifetime, Vermeer's works gained popularity in the 19th century. Today, Vermeer is often counted among the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Over the years, Vermeer's work has inspired artists like Wilhelm Hammershoi and Thomas Wilmer Dewing.

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian is remembered for pioneering what is known as 20th-century abstract art. He co-founded the De Stijl art movement with Theo van Doesburg and gave rise to Neoplasticism. His art was influenced by Cubism. Many of his paintings consist of geometric shapes in particular sets of colors.

Jan van Eyck was a painter best remembered for his Early Northern Renaissance art. He was one of the early innovators of Early Netherlandish painting and one of the most significant painters of his generation. A highly influential painter, Jan van Eyck's style and techniques were adopted by the Early Netherlandish painters.

Jeroen Krabbe is a Dutch actor, illustrator, painter, and film director. He is best known for playing negative roles in popular films like the 15th James Bond movie The Living Daylights. His contributions to film and theatre were honored with the Top Naeff prize in 1965. In 2014, he was awarded the Frans Banninck Cocqpenning for his services to Amsterdam.

One of the most prominent painters of the Dutch Golden Age of painting, Frans Hals is renowned for his individual and group portraits as well as for his genre work paintings. He is known for loose painterly brushwork, colourful palette and lively style of painting. His work played a key role in the development of 17th century group portraiture.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a Dutch classical subject painter whose painting about luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire became very well known. Regarded a prominent Victorian painter, he was successful, admired, famous and highly paid during his lifetime. However, his popularity waned after his death and saw a resurgence only in the second half of the 20th century.

Born to a schoolteacher and part-time painter father, Dutch painter Carel Fabritius learned painting from Rembrandt. A pioneer of the 17th-century Delft movement, he died in the deadly 1654 Delft gunpowder magazine explosion that ravaged most of the city and almost all his works. The Goldfinch remains his best-known work.

Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Dutch artist-author Willem Arondeus is most noted for his participation in bombing of the Amsterdam civil registry office that formed part of the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement during the Second World War. A self-proclaimed gay, his last words before execution were: "Tell the people that homosexuals are not by definition weak."

One of the pioneering figures of the Dutch art movement De Stijl, or The Style, Theo van Doesburg stressed on the importance of simplified and geometric visual arts. The son of a photographer, he grew up to create scores of abstract paintings and designed aesthetic room décor and furniture, too.

Jan Steen was a Dutch Golden Age painter, counted among the leading genre painters of the 17th century. Born into a wealthy family, he received training under prominent painter Nicolaes Knupfer. For several years, he worked with renowned landscape painter Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he later married. He painted portraits, still life, and historical, mythological, and religious scenes.

Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist best known for his sculptures that combine art and engineering. He achieved popularity when he invented the Strandbeest, a moving kinetic structure that resembles a walking animal. Described as an artificial life by Jansen, these sculptures are constantly being improved. In 2016, The Simpsons featured Jansen and the Strandbeest in one of its episodes. 

Best known as part of Wild Romance, Dutch musician Herman Brood was the poster child of Dutch rock and roll and the Netherlands’s biggest rock superstar but was also notorious for his addiction to drugs and alcohol. He later turned to painting but committed suicide by jumping from an Amsterdam hotel at 54.

Karel Appel was a Dutch poet, painter, and sculptor. He is credited with co-founding COBRA, a European avant-garde movement that was active from 1948 to 1951. He is also credited with establishing the Karel Appel Foundation, which aims at preserving his artworks. Many of his works are displayed at museums all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art.

Pieter Claesz was a Dutch painter of still lifes who flourished during the Dutch Golden Age. He is best remembered for his work alongside other important Dutch Golden Age artist Willem Claesz Heda. Pieter Claesz and Heda worked in Haarlem and are credited with founding a well-known tradition of still life painting in the city. 

Clara Peeters was a Flemish painter from Antwerp known for her still-life works. Active in both the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, she is the most famous female Flemish artist of her era. She was one of the few women artists working professionally in 17th-century Europe. She is believed to have been a wealthy and successful artist.  

Born in the Dutch East Indies, Tonke Dragt was 12 when she was interned at a Japanese prisoners’ camp, where she began writing using a pseudonym. She later moved to the Netherlands and emerged as one of the best authors of children's books, including The Letter for the King.