MANDER, Karel van, III

Dutch painter, printmaker, and art collector, grandson of Karel van Mander the Elder, active in Denmark. He was born in Delft, but arrived in Copenhagen with his mother, after the death of his father in 1623. He was a pupil of his father and was influenced by Frans Hals. He finished his education in Copenhagen, after which he began working for Christian IV. Trips to the Netherlands and Italy made him familiar with the leading schools and movements of the time. Having returned to Denmark he became the favourite portrait painter amongst the royal household and the nobility.

Van Mander was part of the cultural elite in Copenhagen. He shared a number of interests with the great pioneer within Danish museum life, Ole Worm (1588-1654). Both men were collectors and owned considerable private collections that were open to interested parties. Van Mander was also interested in anatomy, and in the 1650s he worked together with the doctor Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) to create illustrations for a large volume on anatomy.