Herman van Swanevelt

A Distribution of Bread to the Poor

1650

Herman van Swanevelt or Herman Swanevelt, born in Woerden in 1603 and died in Paris in 1655, was a Dutch painter and engraver. He mainly painted landscapes. His training is very little known. He worked in several places outside Holland, in Spain, Paris and Italy. His first known painting dates from 1630. In 1629, he went to Rome and painted many landscapes, in which he took a particular interest in the treatment of light. His reputation extended to the powerful Barberini family, who commissioned paintings from him, as did the Vatican. He painted landscapes for Philip IV of Spain in Madrid. In 1644 he was appointed "ordinary painter to the king" at the court of France. From 1650 until his death, he lived most often in Paris. That same year, he obtained a royal privilege to publish his prints. In France, he worked on the decoration of the Hôtel Lambert, for which he executed the landscapes for the paneling of the "Gallery of Love" (visible today at the Louvre Museum). In 1653, he became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He was the protégé of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV.