Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kieft, Willem vĭlˈəm kēft [key], 1597–1647, Dutch director-general of New Netherland. Arriving in New Amsterdam in 1638 to succeed Wouter Van Twiller, Kieft immediately assumed absolute control....

(Encyclopedia) Barentz or Barents, Willem both: vĭˈləm bäˈrənts [key], d. 1597, Dutch navigator. He made three voyages (1594, 1595, 1596–97) in search of the Northeast Passage to Asia. He reached Novaya Zeml...

(Encyclopedia) Troelstra, Pieter Jelles pēˈtər yĕlˈĕs tro͞olˈsträ [key], 1860–1930, Dutch Socialist. In 1893 he founded what later became the Sociaaldemocrata, the official Socialist paper, and in 1900 he...

(Encyclopedia) Heda, Willem Claasz vĭlˈəm kläs hāˈdä [key], 1594–c.1678, Dutch still-life painter. His excellent studies of tables laden with food, called ontbijt [breakfast piece] still life, are seen in m...

(Encyclopedia) Kempener, Pieter de pēˈtər də kĕmˈpənər [key], c.1503–1580, Flemish painter, b. Brussels. He studied and painted for 10 years in Italy and about 1537 settled in Seville, Spain, where he was ...

(Encyclopedia) Laer or Laar, Pieter van both: pēˈtər vän lär [key], c.1592–1642, Dutch landscape and genre painter and etcher. In 1625 he went to Rome, where he stayed until 1639. He was nicknamed Il Bambocci...

(Encyclopedia) Saenredam, Pieter Jansz pēˈtər yäns sänˈrədäm [key], 1597–1665, Dutch painter. Born in Assendelft, he spent most of his life in Haarlem. Saenredam was a painter of structures and was sometim...

(Encyclopedia) Hooch or Hoogh, Pieter de both: pēˈtər də hōkh [key], b. c.1629, d. after 1677, Dutch genre painter. He worked in Delft, Leiden, and Amsterdam, painting intimate interiors that may have been infl...

(Encyclopedia) Haren, Willem van vĭlˈəm vän häˈrən [key], 1710–68, Dutch poet, b. Friesland, of a noble family. His chief work is an epic poem, Friso (1741). His brother, Onno Zwier van Haren, 1713–79, al...

(Encyclopedia) Mesdag, Hendrik Willem hĕnˈdrĭk vĭlˈəm mĕsˈdäkh [key], 1831–1915, Dutch marine painter. He gave up banking at 35 to study painting. He later lived at The Hague and was known as a painter an...