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Camphuyzen [Camphuysen], Govert [Govaert] (Dircksz.)
(b ?Gorinchem, 1623–4; d ?Amsterdam, bur 4 July 1672). Dutch painter. He was working as a portrait painter in Amsterdam by 1643, and in 1652 an inventory of his house and possessions was drawn up before their sale to pay off his debts. He is next recorded in 1655 working in Stockholm for the dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora and as a court portrait painter for such patrons as the Chancellor, Count Magnus Gabriel De La Gardie (1622–86). Camphuyzen’s work comprises mostly animal paintings reminiscent of the work of Paulus Potter as well as landscapes with low horizons and figures in the style of Aert van der Neer that reveal an interest in the depiction of unusual light effects; the finest of such works is the Dutch Farm at Sunset (London, Wallace). He also executed a number of more specifically topographical works, including his best-known painting Stockholm Castle (1661; Stockholm, Stat. Hist. Mus.), which successfully combines accuracy with atmospheric effects. It is painted with almost poetic understanding: the building rises like a fairy-tale castle above the gloom of the moat and the dark foliage, the sunlight reflected on its rough walls, its spires silhouetted against the sky. At the same time, however, in the Dutch tradition, it also presents quite accurately the appearance of the castle after it was remodelled in the late 1500s. Camphuyzen returned to Amsterdam c. 1665, and in 1667 he drew up his will.
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