The Life of Romeyn de Hooghe 1645-1708

Prints, Pamphlets, and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age

Henk Nierop, Henk van Nierop

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040788684
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: European History

Romeyn de Hooghe was the most inventive and prolific etcher of the later Dutch Golden Age. The producer of wide-ranging book illustrations, newsprints, allegories, and satire, he is best known as the chief propaganda artist working for stadtholder and king William III. This study, the first book-length biography of de Hooghe, narrates how his reputation became badly tarnished when he was accused of pornography, fraud, larceny, and atheism. Traditionally regarded as a godless rogue, and more recently as an exponent of the Radical Enlightenment, de Hooghe emerges in this study as a successful entrepreneur, a social climber, and an Orangist spin doctor. A study in seventeenth-century political culture and patronage, focusing on spin and slander, this book explores how artists, politicians, and hacks employed literature and the visual arts in political discourse, and tried to capture their readership with satire, mockery, fun, and laughter.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Note on Usage
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. Under the Spire of the Zuiderkerk
• 2. Ingenious Inventions and Rich Designs
• 3. Patriotic Prints
• 4. A Wandering Whore and a Talking Dog
• 5. A Fresh Start
• 6. The Prince Abandoned and Regained
• 7. The Harlequin Prints
• 8. Lampooning the Regents
• 9. The Pamphlet War
• 10. The Memorandum of Rights
• 11. Honour Defended
• 12. Serving the Stadtholder
• 13. Composing Most Pompously
• 14. Final Years
• Appendix: Genealogy of the de Hooghe Family
• Index