HONTHORST, GERARD VAN Dutch painter, born at Utrecht on Nov. 4, 159o, was brought up in the school of Bloemart. He then went to Italy, where he copied the naturalism and eccentricities of Michelangelo da Caravaggio.
Home again in 1622, he entered the Guild of St. Luke, becoming dean in 1625-26-28 and 1629. The queen of Bohemia, sister of Charles I. and electress palatine, being an exile in Holland, asked him to teach her children drawing; and Honthorst, thus approved, was invited by Charles I. to England. There he painted several portraits, and a vast allegory, now at Hampton Court, of the king and queen of Bohemia as Diana and Apollo in the clouds receiving the duke of Buckingham as Mercury and guardian of the king of Bohemia's children. In his home at Utrecht Honthorst finished, in 1631, a large picture of the king and queen of Bohemia "and all their children." For Lord Dorchester about the same period he completed some illustrations of the Odyssey; for the king of Denmark he composed incidents of Danish history, of which one example remains in the gallery of Copenhagen. In 1637 he settled at The Hague, and became court painter (1641).
His most attractive pieces are those in which he cultivates the style of Caravaggio, those, namely, which represent taverns, with players, singers and eaters. He shows great skill in reproducing scenes illuminated by candlelight (e.g., Christ before Pilate in the National Gallery, London), and he liked to transmute every sub ject into a night scene. He died on April 27, 1656.