Joachim Wtewael was born in Utrecht in 1566, and according to his contemporary biographer Karel van Mander, he trained in his father’s glass painting workshop until the age of eighteen. His first teacher in oil painting was Joos de Beer (d. 1591), who also taught Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651).¹ Two years later, in 1586, Wtewael travelled to Italy and then France with his patron Charles de Bourgneuf de Cucé (d. 1617), Bishop of St Malo, for whom he worked for four years before returning to Utrecht.² During that time, he developed a style reminiscent of Parmigianino (1503–1540) and the school of Fontainebleau.³ After his return to Utrecht, he joined the Saddlers’ Guild in 1592 and started a workshop, co-founding the city’s first guild for painters in 1611.⁴ Wtewael’s early Utrecht works show the powerful influence of the late Mannerist style of the trio formed by Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (1562–1638) and Karel van Mander (1548–1606), as well as the exaggerated Italianate manner of Van Mander’s friend Bartholomeus Spranger (1546–1611).

Wtewael is considered one of the most important exponents of Dutch Mannerism. Indeed, he was one of the few artists who did not abandon this style after the first decade of the seventeenth century, continuing to incorporate different stylistic elements into his work, as demonstrated by The Denial of St Peter of about 1620. This nocturnal scene exemplifies the impact of Caravaggio on Dutch artists at that time, evident in the play of light and dark achieved here to striking effect by the fire at the centre of the scene. At the same time, the painting shows Wtewael’s fervour for refined details, rich colouring and graceful, mannered poses, as demonstrated by the silhouette of the central figure.

As well as a painter, Wtewael was active as a political figure, serving on Utrecht’s city council, and he also ran a successful flax and linen business.⁵ Despite his diverse activities, he produced a significant body of work that demonstrates variety in size, support and subject. Wtewael married and had four children, one of whom, Peter (1596–1660), was a painter who worked in his father’s style.⁶ Wtewael died in Utrecht in 1638.

¹ A.K. Wheelock Jr., ‘Joachim Wtewael, Biography’, accessed 8 June 2021, https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1944.html.
² N. MacLaren, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600–1800, vol. I, London 1991, p. 501.
³ A. W. Lowenthal, ‘Wtewael [Utenwael; Uytewael; Wttewael], Joachim (Anthonisz.)’, Grove Art Online, 2003, https://doi-org.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T092368.
⁴ Wheelock 2021.
⁵ Lowenthal 2003.
⁶ Wheelock 2021.