( fl c. 1440–65). North Netherlandish painter. According to van Mander, he was the founder of the early Haarlem school of painting and a contemporary of Jan van Eyck. Van Mander described two of van Ouwater’s works. One, the ‘Roman Altar’ (untraced) in St Bavo, Haarlem, showed life-size standing figures of SS Peter and Paul above a base depicting many pilgrims gathered in an ‘interesting landscape’. The other, a Raising of Lazarus, was known to van Mander in a grisaille copy, the original having been confiscated in 1573 and taken to Spain. Van Mander’s brief account is all that is known of van Ouwater, who has been variously identified as the painter of the Hand G miniatures in the TURIN–MILAN HOURS; as Lambrecht Rutgenssoen, a painter recorded in Haarlem between 1428 and 1465; and as a later Haarlem artist known as the Master of the Tiburtine Sibyl. Some scholars discredit van Mander’s account entirely.

• Ouwater, Albert van
  • Eyck, van: (2) Jan van Eyck, §5: Critical reception and posthumous reputation
  • Netherlands, the, §III, 2: Painting and graphic arts, c 1400–c 1525
  • attributions
    • Bouts: (1) Dieric Bouts I, §1(i): Early works, before c 1460
    • Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Master of the Munich Arrest of Christ
  • pupils
    • Geertgen tot Sint Jans, §1: Life and work