Leonard Knijff, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Leonard Knijff

Dutch draughtsman and painter

Date of Birth: 10-Aug-1650

Place of Birth: Haarlem, County of Holland, Netherlands

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1722

Profession: painter

Nationality: Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Leonard Knyff or Leendert Knijff (10 August 1650, Haarlem - April 1722, London) was a Dutch draughtsman and painter.
He was the son of landscape painter Wouter Knijff and the brother of Jacob Knijff and left around 1681 from Holland to England.
Knyff collaborated with Kip to produce views of country houses and gardens for Britannia Illustrata and Le Nouveau Théâtre. The topographical images of Kip and Knyff are significant for providing reliable illustrations of the development of the formal English garden in the Dutch-French style.
Their documentary information for this period in British architecture and landscape design is particularly valued because, within a generation, the formal gardens seen in these views would be swept away in favor of the pastoral compositions, derived from idealized landscapes of painters such as Claude Lorrain, that characterize the "naturalistic" English landscape gardens. In the later 20th century many of the Kip and Knyff views were hand-coloured, as monochrome landscapes proved increasingly harder to sell in the market.