BROECK, Elias van den

Dutch painter. He was born in Antwerp, but at an early age moved with his parents to Amsterdam, where he was apprenticed to a goldsmith in 1665. In the same year he became a pupil of the still-life painter, Cornelis Kick, with whom he remained until 1669. Subsequently he trained under Jan Davidsz. De Heem at Utrecht and apparently followed him when he returned to Antwerp in 1672.

In 1673 van den Broeck became a member of the guild there, but in 1685 returned to Amsterdam where he worked until his death. It is said that he had been forced to leave Antwerp because of the indignation he had caused by pasting real butterflies on to his canvasses rather than painting them.

He was a painter of flowers, fruit and woodland still-lifes. He was a follower of Otto Marseus van Schrieck. Due to the fact that his style is an amalgam of those of several better known artists, his paintings have often been misattributed.