← Fame through time1600-1699
The 17th century
Whose working lives fell in the 17th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 17th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Rembrandt22 decades - 2
Johannes Vermeer3 decades - 3
Frans Halsnot measured- - 4
Carel Fabritius0 decades - 5
Jan Steen22 decades - 6
Gerard van Honthorst0 decades - 7
Rachel Ruysch0 decades - 8
Jacob van Ruisdael5 decades - 9
Judith Leyster0 decades - 10
Peter Lely22 decades - 11
Pieter de Hooch11 decades - 12
Gerrit Dou0 decades - 13
Pieter Claesz0 decades - 14
Hendrick Avercamp0 decades - 15
Aelbert Cuyp0 decades - 16
Gerard ter Borch0 decades - 17
Jan van Goyen4 decades - 18
Jan Davidsz. de Heemnot measured- - 19
Paulus Potter0 decades - 20
Gabriel Metsu0 decades - 21
Meindert Hobbema0 decades - 22
Willem Claesz. Hedanot measured- - 23
Ferdinand Bol2 decades - 24
Gerard de Lairesse1 decades - 25
Willem van de Velde the Youngernot measured-
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.