Biography

Dutch painter. Harmen Steenwijck and his painter brother Pieter were the sons of a spectacle and lens maker who lived in Delft from 1590s to 1654. Both sons became pupils of their relative David Bailly who lived and worked in Leiden. Harmen studied there between 1628-1633. He moved from Leiden to Delft in 1628 and shared a studio with his brother. In 1654 he traveled to the East Indies, returning to Holland the following year. He worked in a luminous and illusionistic manner, resembling that of Bailly, Dou and Lievens.