Cornelisz Verbeeck was born in Haarlem in about 1590. He appears to have been a violent character continuously caught up in fights and stabbings, which have left us with considerable legal records. In 1610 he became a member of the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem. The painter signed his work either ‘CVB’ or ‘CVB H’. Only a small number of his paintings are known today. However, it is evident that he specialized in beach scenes, ships on rough seas and historic maritime events. It is, most likely, that he died in Haarlem after 1637. The marine painter Cornelis Verbeeck was raised in Haarlem, where he joined the local Guild of St. Luke around 1610. The notorious painter, Rosicrucian and erotomaniac Johannes Torrentius (Verbeek) was his cousin. Cornelis was as well of disputable reputation; he often got in conflict with the law during his youth. His aggressive nature is preserved in the alias ‘Smit’, deriving from the Dutch word for fighting. Despite his many run-ins with the law, Verbeeck enjoyed success as a painter in Haarlem. He primarily created small-scale scenes of naval battles, ships floundering off rocky coasts, and beach scenes, as well as a few large-scale paintings of historical events. Verbeeck had – in agreement with his own nature – a preference for depicting ships in tempest.

Museums:

o.a Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, London, National Gallery of Art, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, Scheepvaartmuseum, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts.