Portrait of three children in a landscape

Like many of his Dutch predecessors, Hermannus Collenius is presumed to have travelled to Italy in his youth to bolster his artistic education before returning to Amsterdam in c.1670. He spent around a decade in the city, though little of his known work dates to that time, before moving back north and settling in Groningen in 1685. He received both public and private commissions, decorating government buildings and painting portraits of the local elite.