Hoet, Gerard

, an eminent historical and landscape painter, born at Bommel in 1648, was a disciple of Warnard van Rysen, an excellent artist, who had been bred in the school of Polemburg. He was at first invited to Cleve, where his paintings procured him very great credit; but he was afterwards prevailed on to visit Paris, where not meeting with encouragement in any degree proportioned to his merit, he turned his attention to England, whither he | certainly would have directed his course, had he not been dissuaded by Vosterman. After practising, therefore, for some time at Paris and Cleves, he settled at Utrecht, and in that city and its neighbourhood displayed his abilities, in executing several grand designs for ceilings, saloons, and apartments, and also in finishing a great number of easel pictures for cabinets; and his reputation was so universally established at Utrecht, that he was appointed director of an academy for drawing and painting, which he conducted, with great honour to himself, and remarkable advantage to his pupils. He had a lively imagination, a very ready invention, a talent for composition and correctness in the costume. His manner of painting was clean and neat, and he was thoroughly master of the true principles of the chiaroscuro. His figures in general are designed with elegance, his colouring is vivid, natural, and harmonious, his touch is light and firm, and his pictures have a great deal of transparence. His small easel-paintings are as distinctly touched as highly finished; and yet his larger works are always penciled with a freedom that is suitable to those grander compositions.

Many capital pictures of this master are in the palace of Slangenberg; and his eminent talents may be seen in the grand staircase at Voorst, the seat of the earl of AlbemarSe. In Holland, and also in our kingdoms, several charming pictures of Hoet are preserved; some of them in the manner of Polemburg, and others in the style of Carel du Jardin. He died in 1733. ¹