Cornelis Hofstede de Groot

He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned German.

In 1893 he published a short article on Judith Leyster in the journal Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, thus "re-discovering" her work for the first time after centuries.

[1] In 1896 he became director of the Rijksprentenkabinet (the Dutch national collection of prints, drawings, and photographs housed in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum building), but he quit after two years because of a difference of opinion with his predecessor there.

He then settled in The Hague as an independent art critic and began work on an eight-part book on Rembrandt with Wilhelm von Bode.

He began the painstaking work of updating John Smith's catalogue raisonné in 1907 in German, but took on the translator Edward G. Hawke almost immediately to ensure publication in English.