A life between The Hague and London Petrus Johannes van Bleeck began his life in The Hague, where he was baptized on 25 June 1697. He grew up in a house shaped by the presence of his father, Richard van Bleeck, who worked as a portrait painter. This early exposure to the quiet work of the studio likely informed the way Peter approached his own subjects. In 1723, he moved to London, a change that brought him into contact with a differen…