Maerten Van Heemskerck
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Maerten Van Heemskerck
He was a Dutch painter, he was sometimes called Van Seem, he was born at Heemskerk in Holland in 1498. He originally was an apprenticed to his father, who was small farmer, but soon moved onto become a student and study at Haarlem as a painter.
He was often recalled to his roots and was put to the first opportunity to get away from his home and farm. He did this by demonstrating how serious he was about art, by walking in a straight line, 50 miles, in one day to the town of Delft. There he studied under a local master whom he started to find a bit of an arse. He deserted the local teacher and went on to study under John Schoreel of Haarlem.
At Haarlem he formed what is known as his first manner, which is an imitation of the florid style brought from Italy by Mabuse and others. After this he started a wandering tour by visiting peoples doorsteps and seeing if they would buy any of his painting or even sketches. He did this whilst travelling over central Italy, stopping at Rome, where he had letters for a cardinal.
Once he was in Rome he spoke to many important people and simply through showing his paintings and expressing his views and opinions in town centres, he became known, not all for good things I might add, but the first thing he had planned to do was get known to the public, so when he was to bring out a gallery, people would want to go out of sheer interest in what he could achieve...