Cornelis Troost

Who was Cornelis Troost?

Cornelis Troost was an 18th-century actor and painter from Amsterdam.

Troost was trained as an actor and married the actress Susanna Maria van der Duyn, but became a pupil of Arnold Boonen and gave up his career for painting in 1723.

He is primarily remembered for his works depicting scenes from the Amsterdam Theatre and daily life of the upper crust in Amsterdam. One of his earliest drawings dated 1708, is of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the booksellar and spy Louis Renard visiting a chic Amsterdam brothel. Then he had an early success with a lively group portrait depicting the Amsterdam Inspectors of the Collegium Medicum. Troost painted portraits, including one of Herman Boerhaave, the famous doctor from Leiden. Troost is known for his paintings of actors in famous roles as well as his witty and elegant Rococo genre scenes. Troost was possibly influenced by William Hogarth, and certainly by French artists such as Watteau, Boucher and Lancret.

His 1736 painting Jeronimus Tonneman and his Son shows the art collector seated in his parlour. He lived on the Keizersgracht, and collected Troost's paintings.