Paulus Moreelse

Paulus Moreelse spent almost his whole life in Utrecht, at the heart of the young Dutch Republic, and made his living from faces. Trained under Michiel van Mierevelt, the leading portrait painter of the day, he softened his teacher's severe manner and drew sitters from across the country.

In 1611, with the painter Abraham Bloemaert, he helped found Utrecht's Guild of Saint Luke, the professional body for the city's artists, and served as its first head. Beyond portraits he tried history subjects in the elaborate Mannerist style, and in the 1620s he found a popular line in pastorals, blonde shepherdesses in low-cut bodices holding a crook or a flute.

Moreelse's talents ran past the easel. Late in life he worked as an architect and city planner, contributing to the design of the Catharijnepoort, one of Utrecht's city gates, before his death there in 1638.