LIEVE VERSCHUIER

VESSELS ON A CHOPPY SEA

It is generally assumed Lieve Pietersz. Verschuier was born in Rotterdam, but we first encounter him in a document dated 13 March 1652, which reveals that he was residing in Amsterdam at the time. We do not know whether he was serving an apprenticeship with a painter there. In 1653 Verschuier was back in Rotterdam where he made his will prematurely, ‘beeltsnijder ziekelijk zijnde’ (being an ailing sculptor.)

According to Houbraken (1721), the artist’s biographer, he must have gone to Rome after 1653. His stay in the Eternal City was a brief one and he returned to Rotterdam in 1656. In 1674 Lieve was appointed sculptor at the national shipyard and even rose to become ‘head man’ of the St. Lucasgilde (Guild of St Luke). In 1698 Spaan described him as an excellent painter of dawn scenes, shipping and water, and also a good sculptor. The painter and sculptor, was buried in the French Church in Rotterdam on 17 December 1686.

Unfortunately, nothing has survived of the magnificent carvings that Lieve must have produced for the Rotterdam Admiralty. We know of some seventy-five of his paintings. The most outstanding of them are scenes of ships at dusk with poetic clouds and cloud formations, and dazzling sunsets that are reminiscent of the work of Claude Lorrain (Champagne 1600- Rome 1682). It is likely that Lieve Verschuier saw paintings by this renowned master when he was in Rome.