Hendrick Danckerts (c. 1625–1680) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver best known for landscapes and views of houses set in their surroundings. Born in The Hague, where he trained and stayed until 1653, he combined the Dutch landscape tradition with the Italianate style he absorbed during his years in Italy.
After a first visit to England in 1650 and five years in Italy, he settled in London in the service of Charles II and the king's brother, the Duke of York, later James II. There he painted mostly views of harbours and royal residences, including A View of Tangier (1669) and Whitehall from St James's Park (1674). He also produced portraits, devotional pictures and engravings after Italian old masters in the Royal Collection.
He left England in 1679, amid public hostility toward Roman Catholics after the Popish Plot controversy, and died soon after in Amsterdam. His work survives mainly in British collections, where twenty of his paintings are held in public ownership today.
Works (4)
A classical landscape dated 1677, painted in oil on canvas by Hendrick Danckerts. The work belongs to landscape painting, a genre in which nature is arranged with an ordered, balanced composition. Without reference texts, it is best to stay with what the record states: a landscape scene of classical character, whose detailed reading calls for close examination of the image itself.
Where to see the work
- Royal Collection · 2
- Government Art Collection London · 1
- National Maritime Museum Royal Borough of Greenwich · 1
Curiosities
The “Master with the Two Anchors”
Danckerts was also known as the “Master with the Two Anchors”, a nickname that refers to an identifying feature associated with his output. Art historians use the label to group works linked to him, and it offers a useful reference point in catalogues of Dutch painting, where attributions are often debated.
A painter brother
Danckerts was the younger brother of the painter Johan Danckerts, which places the family firmly within the Dutch artistic world of the seventeenth century. The available sources do not detail how the two worked together, but the kinship helps explain the artistic circles in which he trained in The Hague.
A precise burial date
Although the exact date of his death is not firmly recorded, it is documented that he was buried on 2 November 1680, shortly after his death in Amsterdam. This detail allows his final years to be dated more precisely than is possible for many painters of his time, whose biographical records are usually sparser.