Willem van Haecht

Training under Tobias Verhaecht is recorded. The authority associates the name with Baroque painting. Places of work recorded in the authority are Antwerp. Employment is recorded with Cornelis van der Geest. Works named in the authority record are Appelles painting Campaspe, The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, Alexander the Great visits the studio of Apelles, Collection of Cornelis de Geest with Paracelsus, Interior of the Salon of the Archduchess Isabella of Austria and The Art Collection of Prince Władysław Vasa. Work by Willem van Haecht is recorded in the collections of Rubenshuis, National Galleries Scotland, Mauritshuis, Gallery Prince Willem V and Norton Museum of Art.

Willem van Haecht was born in Antwerp as the son of the landscape painter Tobias Verhaecht. Tobias Verhaecht was a prominent painter who had been the first teacher of Peter Paul Rubens. Willem was a pupil of his father. He worked in Paris from 1615 to 1619, and then travelled to Italy for about seven years. Van Haecht became a master in Antwerp's guild of St. Luke in 1626 and from 1628 onwards was the curator of the art collection owned by Cornelis van der Geest. This collection is represented in allegorical terms in the Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest (1628; Rubenshuis, Antwerp). The left side of the painting includes various portraits of contemporaneous figures, including (from the left) Infanta Isabel Clara of Spain, Archduke Albert of Austria, Peter Paul Rubens, Prince Władysław Vasa of Poland (who visited van der Geest's Gallery in 1624, with black hat) and the host showing a picture,[1] as well as many famous paintings such as Paracelsus by Quentin Matsys. Alexander the Great Visiting the Studio of Apelles (c. 1630, Mauritshuis) is another gallery painting by van Haecht. It has significant documentary evidence as it is believed it is an idealised image of elements drawn from Rubens' collection.[2]

• Illustration — Interior of the Salon of the Archduchess Isabella of Austria; 1621, oil on panel, 93 × 123 cm, Norton Museum of Art. • Illustration — The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest; 1628, oil on panel, 99 × 129 cm, Rubenshuis. • Illustration — Alexander the Great visits the studio of Apelles; 1628–37, oil on panel, 78 × 114 cm, private collection. • Illustration — Apelles painting Campaspe; c. 1630, oil on panel, 105 × 149 cm, Mauritshuis. • Illustration — Collection of Cornelis de Geest with Paracelsus; 1630s, oil on panel, 73 × 104 cm, The Bute collection.

Works recorded as notable number 6: Appelles painting Campaspe, The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, Alexander the Great visits the studio of Apelles, Collection of Cornelis de Geest with Paracelsus, Interior of the Salon of the Archduchess Isabella of Austria and The Art Collection of Prince Władysław Vasa.

Willem van Haecht is recorded as painter and curator.