HOGSTRATEN Samuel van (Hoogstraten Samuel van)

(1627-1678)
Rejecting the dramatic style of his teacher, he was fascinated illyuzionisticheskim re-creation of real objects and spaces in the technique of painting. Hogstraten manufactured TN. 'magic box' - boxes painted on the walls within the interior of the Dutch house, with its nooks and crannies, alcoves and suites of rooms, visible in the doorways. One of these boxes is in the London National Gallery.
Hogstraten was born in Dordrecht on Aug. 2, 1627. He first studied with his father, Dirk Hogstratena, and then worked in the studio of Rembrandt and painted with Biblical scenes, genre scenes, portraits and still lifes. In early 1650-ies Hogstraten visited Vienna and Rome, became acquainted with the art of the Renaissance, he was particularly interested in the complex spatial structure and illyuzionisticheskie effects used in the works of Italian masters. Then he began to write interiors - a genre in which to work Fabritius, de Hooh and Vermeer. Soon Hogstraten was appointed chief of the mint at Dordrecht. Died in Dordrecht Hogstraten October 19, 1678.

Creativity Hogstratena and other Dutch artists of the first half of the 17. exerted considerable influence invention and improvement of a variety of optical devices, such as a camera obscura and the telescope. As these instruments, the 'magic box' are optical devices whose meaning lies in the organization of the process of scrutiny. The viewer, looking through one of the two holes in the sidewalls of the box, sees the illusory colonnade, scenes of domestic life, garden window, etc.. Pictures Hogstratena, such as Type corridor (Durham Park, England), as well as the 'magic box', paradoxically, can hold a huge real world, written by the artist's brush.