Gijsbert van Veen


Gijsbrecht or Gijsbert van Veen was a Dutch Renaissance painter and engraver, the brother of Otto van Veen. Born in Leiden, he travelled through Italy as a young man and settled in Brussels, where he died.
Van Veen's engraving entitled Præstigiator, showing an Indian medicine man in the midst of a ritual dance, was based on an earlier watercolor painting by John White. The image is one of a series that portrayed the lives of the Algonquian-speaking Indians in the Outer Banks region of present-day North Carolina.
In 1603 Van Veen was paid 150 livres from state funds for carrying out secret missions for the Archdukes Albert and Isabella. In the same year he was awarded 373 livres 15 sols in part payment of 873 livres 15 sols due for portraits of Albert, Isabella, and the late Philip II of Spain, painted at the Archdukes' behest as a gift for Charles Philippe de Croÿ, Marquis d’Havré.
In 1604 he was paid another 803 livres and 10 sols for portraits of the king and queen of Spain, again gifts for the Marquis of Havré, and for portraits of Albert and Isabella that had been sent to the King of England the previous year.