Notes

Robert Griffier was the son of Jan Griffier, whom Arnold Houbraken called ‘a burgher of the world (see  Houbraken, De groote Schouburgh der Nederlandtsche konstschilders en schilderessen, III, Amsterdam, 1721, p. 360). Jan came to England around 1632 and became so successful as a painter of Italianate and Rhenish scenes that he was able to spend 3000 guilders on a yacht, on which he lived on the Thames. It would appear that Robert was born after Jan’s third marriage and soon after it seems that the family sailed back to the Low Countries, but were shipwrecked off Rotterdam and were left with only a few coins that one of the girls had stored away in her belt. By 1704 the Griffier family seems to have returned to London.

Both Robert and his brother Jan Griffier II would have been trained by their father. Indeed, many pictures were for a long time mistaken as examples of Jan Griffier the Elder’s oeuvre. At the time of the shipwreck Robert was not with his family but was in Ireland and later joined the family in The Netherlands. He remained in Amsterdam after his fathers’ departure and continued making Rhine landscapes influenced by the style of Herman Saftleven.