{{Short description|Baroque engraver (1595–1675)}} [[File:Lucas Vorsterman I, by Anthony van Dyck.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Lucas Vorsterman, engraving by [[Anthony van Dyck]] for his ''Iconography'']] [[File:WolfgangWilhelmvonPfalz-Neuburg01.jpg|thumb|[[Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg]]; engraving by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder after a portrait by [[Anthony van Dyck]]]] [[File:Lucas Vorsterman - Triumph of Poverty - WGA25304.jpg|thumb|Triumph of Poverty]]
'''Lucas Vorsterman''' (1595–1675) was a [[Baroque]] [[Engraving|engraver]]. He worked with the artists [[Peter Paul Rubens]] and [[Anthony van Dyck]], as well as for patrons such as [[Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel]] and [[Charles I of England]].
==Biography== Vorsterman was born in [[Zaltbommel]]. Around 1618, Vorsterman joined Rubens' workshop.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Letters of Peter Paul Rubens|last=Magurn|first=Ruth Saunders|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|year=1955|page=53}}</ref> Between 1619 and 1621, Vorsterman was Rubens's sole engraver.<ref name=Hottle>{{cite journal|journal=Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek|last=Hottle|first=Andrew D.|title=Commerce and Connections: Peter Paul Rubens and the Dedicated Print|volume=55|year=2004|pages=54–85|doi=10.1163/22145966-90000105}}</ref> At that time, Rubens had embarked upon a printmaking enterprise in which he enlisted Vorsterman to engrave a number of his notable paintings, to which Rubens appended personal and professional dedications to noteworthy individuals.<ref name=Hottle/>
In 1621, a violent dispute arose between Vorsterman and Rubens. It is not clear whether there was a physical altercation between the two men, but the situation was sufficiently serious for Rubens' lawyers to petition the authorities for a protection order, which was granted.<ref>{{cite book|title=Rubens and His Circle|url=https://archive.org/details/rubenshiscircles0000held|url-access=registration|last=Held|first=Julius S.|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton|year=1982|isbn=9780691039688}}</ref> The exact causes of the dispute are not known, but it has generally been assumed that its source was in the issue of ownership of the authorial rights to the prints engraved by Vorsterman on the basis of Rubens' designs.<ref name=Lamster/> In 1621, Vorsterman began to add his own dedications to his engravings after Rubens' paintings.<ref name=Hottle/> Before the dispute arose, their relationship had ostensibly been good since Rubens had agreed to be godfather to Vorsterman's eldest son Lucas Vorsterman II.<ref name=Fitzwilliam/> The dispute ended the working relationship between the two men.<ref name=Lamster>{{cite book|last=Lamster|first=Mark|title=Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens|publisher=Random House Incorporated|location=New York|year=2010|pages=108–110}}</ref>
In 1624, Vorsterman went to England and survived on the patronage of royalty and nobility. He returned to Antwerp in 1630 and was one of the printmakers selected by Van Dyck to engrave plates for his ''Iconography''. Vorsterman executed twenty-two of the original eighty plates.<ref name=Fitzwilliam>[http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/vandyck/biographies/lucasvorsterman.html Lucas Vorsterman (1595-1675) at the Fitzwilliam Museum]</ref> Vorsterman lost his sight in his old age and he lived in poverty. He lived on the support of the Antwerp [[Guild of St Luke]] until his death in 1675.
His pupils include [[Paulus Pontius]], [[Hans Witdoeck]], [[Jacob Neefs]] and [[Marinus Robyn van der Goes]]. Vosterman's son [[Lucas Vorsterman II]] (born in 1624) was trained by his father as an engraver.<ref>[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/81858 Lucas Vorsterman I] in the [[RKD]]</ref>
==References== <references/>
==Further reading== *{{cite book | author=Liedtke, Walter A. | title=''Flemish paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'' | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1984 | isbn=0870993569 | url=https://archive.org/details/flemishpaintings0000metr | url-access=registration }} (see index, v.1: ''Vorstermans, Lucas'').
==External links== *[https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vorsterm/ Works at WGA] {{Commons category}} {{Authority control (arts)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vorsterman, Lucas}} [[Category:1595 births]] [[Category:1675 deaths]] [[Category:Dutch Golden Age printmakers]] [[Category:Painters from Antwerp]] [[Category:People from Zaltbommel]]