(b Rotterdam, c. 1636; d Rotterdam, 1684). Dutch draughtsman, etcher and painter. He is usually judged by his many signed—and often highly coloured—gouache drawings of landscape views and genre scenes. However, several gouache drawings of religious subjects, for example the Crucifixion (Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.), have been suggested as early works (see Andrews, 1981 and 1983). Between 1648 and 1654 he was very likely a pupil in Rotterdam of Abraham Furnerius, a relative (on his mother’s side). In 1668 van Battem was in Utrecht, where he married Margaretha Scheffer, sister of the local painter Anton Scheffer. The same year he was commissioned by Philips Koninck, the brother-in-law of Abraham Furnerius (d 1654), to arrange for the auction of the prints, drawings and art books belonging to the estate of Abraham’s father, Dr Johannes Furnerius (d 1668), a Rotterdam surgeon and collector. Van Battem must have seen the colourful landscapes of Herman Saftleven II while in Utrecht, where he lived until 1669, when he returned to Rotterdam. In 1678 he was paid by the municipal authorities of Rotterdam to restore a painting in the stock exchange.

• Battem, Gerrit van
  • Furnerius, Abraham