Arnold Houbraken

Arnold Houbraken (born March 28, 1660, Dordrecht, Holland—died Oct. 14, 1719, Amsterdam) was a Dutch painter and art writer noted for his three-volume biographical study of Netherlandish painters, De groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen (1718–21). 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.