Hendrick Jacobsz Dubbels

Dubbels was born and lived his entire life in Amsterdam. He was the son of a diamond- cutter and baptized in the Oude Kerk in 1621. He married twice, in 1651 and again in 1656, when he described himself as a painter. He had been a winkelier or haberdasher-draper, selling caps, bonnets and stockings. This was presumably an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the highly competitive Amsterdam art world.

His early dated painting is from 1643. His marine style was originally based on that of Jan Porcellis, then that of Simon de Vlieger in whose studio he worked c. 1650-1653, bringing him in contact with Jan van de Capelle.

The 1650’s were a period of his best work, including winter landscapes. He then worked for Willem van de Velde I and II until they left for London in the Year of Disasters 1672. In the late 1650’s or early 1660’s he trained Ludolf Bakhuizen, the leading Dutch marine painter of the last decades of the century. Abraham Storck, was another influence on his later work, when he declined sharply in quality from the 1680’s