SAFTLEVEN, Dutch family of artists
Few works survive by Herman Saftleven I (c. 1580-1627), a history painter and draughtsman active in Rotterdam from c. 1609. He married Lijntge Cornelisdochter Moelants, and three of their sons became artists: Cornelis Saftleven, Herman Saftleven II and Abraham Saftleven (b. 1613). Cornelis and Herman II both grew up in Rotterdam, where they trained as painters, possibly with their father. Abraham was also a painter and the pupil of Abraham van der Linden, by whom no works are known. One of Herman II's daughters, Sara Saftleven, also became a painter, specializing in watercolours of flowers in the manner of her father.
