Willem van Herp the Elder (1614-1677)

• Was a Flemish Baroque painter specializing in religious paintings and small cabinet paintings of "low-life" genre scenes.
• He had trained with the minor artists Damiaan Wortelmans II and Hans Biermans.
• He was listed as an independent master in the Guild of St. Luke beginning in 1637.

• He spent his entire career in Antwerp.

• He married Maria Wolffort, daughter of the painter Artus Wolffort.

• He was the father of Norbertus en Willem (II) van Herp, who both became painters, and daughters Maria Anna and Anna Maria.

• He was the master of his son Norbertus and Melchior Hamers. 

• Many of his paintings can be regarded as copies or pastiches of original compositions by painters such as Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Gerard Seghers, Jan Boeckhorst, Hendrick van Balen, Erasmus Quellinus the Younger, Gaspar de Crayer, Artus Wolffort as well as of Italian masters such as Raffael and Guido Reni.

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