HOUBRAKEN, ARNOLD

born March 28, 1660, Dordrecht, Holland died Oct. 14, 1719, Amsterdam Dutch painter and art writer noted for his three-volume biographical study of Netherlandish painters, De groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen (171821). Houbraken was a competent if rather uninspired academic painter, but his De Groote Schouburgh is the single most important source of information about the great Dutch painters of the 17th century.