b. about 1636 Rotterdam, The Netherlands, d. 1684 Rotterdam, The Netherlands
draftsman; painter
Dutch

Gerrit Battem is known for his many drawings, often highly colored, of landscapes and genre scenes in bodycolor. He also may have painted some religious subjects in bodycolor. Tradition has it that he studied in Rotterdam with Abraham Furnerius, a landscape draftsman of the Rembrandt school who was related to Battem's mother. Battem might also have studied with his guardian, painter Jan Daemen Cool. One of his earliest works, a landscape etching of 1658, shows the influence of Herman Saftleven.

During the 1670s he painted the figures in a number of landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael. Battem's thickly populated works on paper represent winter scenes, canals, and imaginary views of Dutch towns, while his rare oil paintings generally depict hilly, heavily wooded river valleys.