Collection: Cornelis Troost

Cornelis Troost (1696–1750) was a Dutch painter and former actor from Amsterdam. Initially trained as an actor, he became a pupil of Arnold Boonen and transitioned to painting in 1723. Troost developed a practice encompassing portraiture and genre scenes, working within the emerging Rococo aesthetic.

Troost depicted scenes from the Amsterdam Theatre and the daily life of the city's upper class. His early work includes a group portrait of the Amsterdam Inspectors of the Collegium Medicum (1724). He created portraits, such as one of Herman Boerhaave, and theatre decorations. Troost frequently employed pastel and watercolor, notably in his five-picture series NELRI (1740), which illustrates a night of social gathering.

Troost's pupils included Jacobus Buys, Noël Challe, Pieter Tanjé, and his daughter Sara Troost. Sara, also a painter, had her works engraved by other artists. She married the printer Jacob Ploos van Amstel, connecting Troost to a family of artists and collectors.