Otto Marseus van Schrieck

Otto Marseus van Schrieck was a painter in the Dutch Golden Age. He is best known for his paintings of forest flora and fauna.

Marseus van Schrieck spent the years 1652-1657 in Rome and Florence with the painters Matthias Withoos and Willem van Aelst, and there joined the Dutch Guild of Artists. Later he worked at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and traveled throughout England and France, after which he settled in Amsterdam. On 25 April 1664, he married Margarita Gysels (the daughter of Cornelius Gysels, an engraver). Arnold Houbraken's biography of Otto mentions that he joined the Bentvueghels in Rome and was called the snuffelaer, or "ferreter", because he was always in the garden looking for detail. Houbraken quotes Otto's wife, who survived him by two husbands and was still alive when he wrote the book; according to her, Marseus van Schrieck kept snakes and lizards in a shed at the back of his house, and also on a piece of land outside the city that was walled in for this purpose.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2024