Arnold Bronckorst

According to an account of gold mining in Scotland by Stephen Atkinson written in 1619, Bronckorst was working in London as an associate of the English painter Nicholas Hilliard.

[2] With a painter or prospector, Cornelius de Vos, Bronckhorst went to Scotland to invest in gold mining, meeting Regent Morton.

According to Atkinson, Hilliard invested in the mine, and Bronckhorst went to Edinburgh to negotiate the sale of gold to the mint, unsuccessfully.

Cornelius de Vos is documented as a mineral prospector in Scotland in this period, prospecting for gold and salt with colleagues including John Achillay, but not as a painter.

I am presently travelling (working) to obtain him license to see the King's presence thrice in the day, till the end of his work; quhilk (which) will be no sooner perfected nor nine days, after the obtaining of this license ...the king our sovereign's portraiture, according to his proportion in all parts, which has been so long in making, and so difficult in getting, that I have been almost wearied therwith.

[23] One portrait signed and dated 1578 by Bronckorst survives; the English sitter Oliver St John of Bletso, was the father of a reluctant keeper and juror of Mary Queen of Scots.