VELDE, van de, family of Dutch artists
Esaias van de Velde was the second son of Cathalyne van Schorle and the painter and art dealer Hans van den Velde (1552–1609), a Protestant who fled religious persecution in Antwerp and settled in Amsterdam in 1585. On his father's death, Esaias, a painter, draughtsman and etcher, moved to Haarlem with his mother, and the same year he married Katelyna Maertens, with whom he had four children: Jan (b 1614), Esaias the Younger (b 1615), Anthonie the Younger (1617–72) and a daughter, Jacquemijntgen (b 1621). Both Esaias the Younger and Anthonie the Younger became artists, the latter a still-life painter named after his uncle, the Antwerp painter Anthonie van den Velde the elder (b. ca. 1557). Esaias's older brother, Jan van de Velde I, was a famous calligrapher, who moved from Antwerp to Rotterdam after his marriage in 1592. His eldest son, Jan van de Velde II, was a painter, draughtsman and printmaker, like his uncle. He had a son, Jan van de Velde III, who became a still-life painter. Both Esaias and Jan II played an important role in the development of naturalistic Dutch landscapes in the 17th century.
