Hendrick van Cleve III

Hendrick or Hendrik van Cleve III (c. 1525 in Antwerp - between 1590 and 1595) was a Flemish painter and engraver. He was the son and pupil of Willem van Cleve the Elder, and the elder brother of Marten van Cleve the Elder and of Willem Van Cleve the Younger. He is called "the third" to differentiate him from Hendrik van Cleve I (registered as a master of the Guild of St. Luke 1489/90) and Hendrick II (Guild of St. Luke, 1534), about whom little else is known.

Hendrick III went to Italy when young, and returned to his native country a good painter of landscapes. His pictures are distinguished by an uncommon lightness of touch, and an excellent tone of colour. The backgrounds of the historical works of his brother Marten and of Frans Floris are frequently painted by this artist, and are harmonized with the figures with great intelligence. In the Belvedere at Vienna is the 'History of the Prodigal Son' by him. He was received into the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp in 1551.

Hendrick van Cleve distinguished himself as an engraver. Several of his plates survive of landscapes and views near Rome, after his own designs or those of Melchior Lorch, which he sometimes signed Henricus Clivensis, fecit, and sometimes marked with a cipher.

A series of thirty-eight plates by this artist, entitled Ruinarum varii prospectus, ruriumque aliquot delineationes, published by Theodoor Galle. He died at Antwerp between 1590 and 1595.

His son, another Hendrick van Cleve, who was born at Antwerp, settled about 1597 at Ghent, where he was much esteemed, but his works are now confounded with those of his father. He died at Ghent in 1646.