Dutch painter of genre and battle pictures, but best known for his realistic landscapes, by which he helped establish the Dutch school of realistic landscape painting. His use of composition and colour in works such as Dune Landscape (1629, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) were especially influential. He worked in Haarlem 1610-18 and then in The Hague where he was Court Painter to the Prince Maurits and Frederick Hendrick, until his death. Jan van Goyen was his pupil. There were other artists in his family, his nephew was Jan Jansz. van de Velde, but he was not related to the family of Willem van de Velde. //