Dirck de Bray (Haarlem c. 1635 – 1694 Goch)

He was the youngest surviving son of the painter-architect Salomon de Bray (1597-1664) and his wife, Anna Westerbaen (1605-1663). His brothers Jan de Bray (c. 1627-1697) and Joseph de Bray (c. 1628/34-1664) were also artists.

After having trained as a bookbinder, presumably in the workshop of Hans Passchiers van Wesbusch II (active 1649-1665), Dirck de Bray was admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1658.⁶⁶J. Giltaij, Jan de Braij (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, pp. 21. The earliest dated object related to the artist is a manuscript booklet entitled ‘Kort onderweijs van het boeckenbinden’ (‘Brief manual to the art of book binding’), preserved in the Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem (inv. no. Stell. 21 B 201 (HS 201)); inscribed with the date 1658, it is decorated with sixteen small drawings showing scenes from a bookbinder’s workshop. On 5 September 1671 Dirck is appointed secretary of the Guild. No further activities within the Guild are recorded, but in a group portrait of officers of the Guild, dated 1675, also in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-58),⁷⁷Ibid., pp. 20-21 (fig. 7). the artist was portrayed by his brother, Jan. Dirck, in his turn, painted the likeness of his brother in that same picture.
Around 1680, Dirck gave up his artistic career to become a lay brother at the monastery of Gaesdonck in Goch, although he remained active as a bookbinder.⁸⁸RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/12192; accessed 10 May 2021. Dirck took his vows as a lay brother on 12 October 1681, assuming the name Theodorus.

The body of works that can be securely attributed to Dirck de Bray is modest, no doubt owing to the brevity of his artistic career. Very little can be said about his draughtsmanship, given the strong stylistic similarities that characterize the drawings of the various family members. It is likely that Dirck, like his brothers, was involved in the studio practice of making ricordi or drawn copies of paintings by his father and brother Jan.⁹⁹J. Giltaij and F. Lammertse, ‘Maintaining a Studio Archive: Drawn Copies by the De Braij Family’, Master Drawings 39 (2001), no. 4, pp. 380, 382. Dirck’s skill at making refined and detailed chalk drawings is attested by a signed black chalk copy, preserved in the De Grez collection, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels (inv. no. 459), which records an untraced portrait of his maternal uncle Joan Westerbaen (1600-1686).¹⁰¹⁰Ibid., p. 382, fig. 16. The drawing is dated 19 April 1655 at the lower right; a second date, 1651, near the sitter’s collar suggests that the original portrait – a painting or drawing by an as yet unidentified artist – was done that year. Another drawn ricordo, tentatively attributed to Dirck by Giltaij and Lammertse and now in a private collection,¹¹¹¹Ibid., p. 382. is a rendering in black and red chalk, with grey wash, of his father Salomon’s painting Joseph Receiving his Brothers in Egypt, also in a private collection.¹²¹²P. Biesboer et al., Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th-century Holland, exh. cat. Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum)/London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 2008, no. 9.

Dirck de Bray made several woodcuts and etchings, both after his own designs and after those of his brother Jan. The Noord-Hollands Archief holds six drawings in pen and brown ink, with grey wash – two of which served as designs for prints.¹³¹³Inv. nos. NHA 53010186-91. His prints were intended mainly for title-pages and book illustrations. He also produced at least eleven rare, but accomplished paintings and watercolours of (flower) still-lives dated between 1665 and 1680.¹⁴¹⁴J. Giltaij and F. Lammertse, ‘Maintaining a Studio Archive: Drawn Copies by the De Braij Family’, Master Drawings 39 (2001), no. 4, p. 382; J. Giltaij, Jan de Bray (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, pp. 21.

Saskia van Altena, 2021

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), p. 177; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, I, pp. 173-74; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, IV (1910), p. 554; J.W. von Moltke, ‘Jan de Bray’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 11/12 (1938-39), p. 432; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, III (1950), pp. 185-90; B. Haak, Hollandse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, p. 392; J. Giltaij and F. Lammertse, ‘Maintaining a Studio Archive: Drawn Copies by the De Braij Family’, Master Drawings 39 (2001), no. 4, pp. 367-94; J.W. von Moltke, “De Bray family” (2003), Grove Art Online, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T011005; H. Leeflang, ‘De verfijnde prentkunst van Dirck de Bray’, _Kunstschrift (2007), no. 1, pp. 42-46; F.C. Meijer, ‘Joseph and Dirck de Bray: Painters of Still-lives’, in P. Biesboer et al., Painting Family: The De Brays, Master Painters of 17th-century Holland, exh. cat. Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum)/London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 2008, pp. 28-33; J. Giltaij, Jan de Braij (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, pp. 19-21, 47; RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/12192