Cornelis Vermeulen, also known as Cornelis Martinus Vermeulen, was a Flemish printmaker active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born in Antwerp in 1654 or 1655, the son of Geeraert Vermeulen—a registered decorator (stoffeerder) in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke—and Christina de Gande.
Training and career
Vermeulen was apprenticed to the engraver Peeter Clouwet (also spelled Clouet) in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke during the guild year 1668–1669. He attained the status of wijnmeester (son of a master) in the same guild between 18 September 1682 and 18 September 1683. In 1681 he joined the Confraternity of the Bachelors (Sodaliteit van de Bejaerde Jongmans), a Jesuit‑founded fraternity for unmarried men in Antwerp.
From 1682 to 1683 Vermeulen worked in Paris, where he associated with a circle of Flemish expatriate artists, including the portrait and battle painter Constantijn Francken. He maintained close ties with Paris thereafter, collaborating with the workshop of the prominent engraver Gérard Edelinck.
Artistic output
Vermeulen specialised in portrait engravings, reproductive prints, frontispieces, and book illustrations. He produced portrait prints after the works of leading French and Dutch painters such as Nicolas de Largillière, Pierre Mignard, Hyacinthe Rigaud, and Adriaen van der Werff. Notable series include the Eleven Portraits from English History (1697), a set of engravings of English monarchs and nobles based on designs by Adriaen van der Werff; the series contains a celebrated portrait of Lady Jane Grey.
His reproductive work encompassed engravings after old‑master paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Adriaen van der Werff, and Francesco Trevisani. Vermeulen also created frontispieces for scholarly publications, such as Hugo de Groot and Antoine de Courtin’s Le droit de la guerre et de la paix (1687) and Isaac de Larrey’s Histoire d'Angleterre (1697–1713).
In the realm of illustration, Vermeulen contributed to several travel and historical volumes. He provided an illustration of a snake for Guy Tachard’s Voyage de Siam des Prêtres Jésuites (Paris, 1686) and engraved six plates—three of which are folding—for Gabriel Dellon’s Relation de l’inquisition de Goa (Paris, 1688), depicting scenes of the Inquisition and its penitents.
Personal life and death
Vermeulen married Maria Anna van de Wee before 18 December 1706. He died in Antwerp sometime between 18 September 1708 and 18 September 1709, the exact date being uncertain; his death duties were recorded by the guild during that period. After his death, his widow remarried the painter Pieter Andreas Rijsbrack.
Cornelis Vermeulen is remembered for his contribution to the dissemination of portraiture and historical illustration in the Baroque period, bridging Flemish engraving traditions with the artistic currents of Parisian France.