VALCKENBORCH, Frederik van

Valckenborch (or Valkenborch, or Valkenborgh), family of Netherlandish landscape and genre painters. The family was originally from Leuven but was one of many families who, for political or religious reasons, left the Spanish-occupied southern Netherlands and settled in the more tolerant German imperial cities, particularly Frankfurt am Main, where they often strongly influenced artistic developments. Of the 14 known painters in the family, only Marten van Valckenborch I, his brother Lucas van Valckenborch I and Marten’s sons Frederik van Valckenborch and Gillis (Egidius) van Valckenborch have so far been identified as significant from surviving works.

Frederik van Valckenborch was a painter and draughtsman, son of Marten van Valckenborch I. He must have received his first training in Antwerp, possibly from his father, although his earliest works, two drawings - the Deluge (1588; London, British Museum) and Moses Drawing Water from the Rocks (1589; Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum) - contain figures of a completely different type from Marten’s. This has prompted the theory that, whereas he studied landscape painting with his father, he must also have worked with an Antwerp figure painter. Jacob de Backer certainly influenced the young master strongly, but it would be premature to assume that Frederik was his pupil.