van de Velde: see Velde, van de.

Velde, van de, 17th-century Dutch family of artists. Jan van de Velde, 1593-1641, was a draftsman and engraver as well as a painter. His cousin Esaias van de Velde, c.1591-1630, a painter of genre and battle scenes, is best known for his clearly delineated landscapes. His Ferry Boat (Rijks Mus.) is indicative of the trend Dutch landscape was soon to follow. Esaias's pupil Jan van Goyen was greatly influenced by his work. His brother Willem van de Velde, the elder, 1611-93, a marine painter, accompanied the Dutch fleet and depicted its victories over the English. He settled in England in 1672 and executed many works preserved at Hampton Court; he is also well represented in Amsterdam. He is thought to have worked often in collaboration with his son Willem van de Velde, the younger, 1633-1707, who was the most renowned marine painter of his day and is considered the father of English marine painting. Willem, the younger, was with his father in the fleet and in England and was commissioned by Charles II to portray naval engagements, being court painter from 1677. The National Maritime Museum in London has an important collection of his paintings. His brother, Adriaen van de Velde, 1636-72, was a landscape painter who showed a keen perception of the changes in light due to the season and the hour of the day. Most of his landscapes contain figures, and he often painted the figures in the landscapes of other painters, including his brother Willem, the younger, Hobbema, Ruisdael, his master Wynants, and Jan van der Heyden. Jan Jansz van de Velde, 1620-63, the son of Jan van de Velde, painted still lifes with fine, coloristic subtlety. His Still-life Study is in the National Gallery, London.

Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (Feb 12 1873, Leeuwarden - April 27 1937 near Locarno in a plane crash) was a Dutch physician and gynæcologist who served as Director at the Gynæcological Institute in Haarlem. His 1926 book Het volkomen huwelijk (The Perfect Marriage) made him an instant international celebrity. The book advocated knowledge and sensuality in erotic life. In Germany Die vollkommene Ehe reached its 42nd printing in 1932 in spite of the fact that it was placed on the list of forbidden books, Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Roman Catholic Church. In protestantic and socialistic Sweden, Det fulländade äktenskapet was widely known although regarded as pornographic and unsuitable for young readers long into the 1960s.

The English translation, Ideal Marriage: Its Physiology and Technique was the best-known work on its subject for several decades, and was reprinted 46 times in the original edition, selling well over a half-million copies.

He is credited with showing in 1905 that women only ovulate once per menstrual cycle. This contributed to the improvement of calendar-based methods of birth control, and later to the creation of other fertility awareness systems.