(bapt Dordrecht, 12 Oct 1642; bur Dordrecht, 12 June 1722). Dutch painter. He was the eldest son of Pieter Jansz. van Calraet (c. 1620–81), a sculptor from Utrecht. According to Houbraken, Abraham was taught by the Dordrecht sculptors Aemilius and Samuel Huppe, although nothing is known of his activity as a sculptor. Houbraken also stated that Abraham learnt to paint figures and fruit and that his brother Barent van Calraet (1649–1737), who specialized at first in horse paintings but later imitated the Rhine landscapes of Herman Saftleven, was a pupil of Aelbert Cuyp (see CUYP, (3)). The known signed works by Barent confirm this. A painting of two horses in a stable, initialled APK (Rotterdam, Mus. Boymans–van Beuningen), indicates that Abraham, too, must have been well acquainted with Cuyp and provides the basis for identifying Abraham’s painting style. A large number of landscapes with horses, paintings of livestock in stables and still-lifes, all initialled A.C. and formerly attributed to Aelbert Cuyp, are now generally considered to be the work of van Calraet, although many of these are in fact copies after him.

• Calraet, Abraham (Pietersz.) van
  • Cuyp: (3) Aelbert Cuyp, §3: Critical reception and posthumous reputation