Reinier Vinkeles (1741–1816) was born in Amsterdam. He started as an apprentice with Jan Punt, joining the Amsterdam Stadstekenacademie (City Drawing School) in 1762, where he became one of the directors in 1765.
In 1765 he travelled to Brabant with Jurriaan Andriessen and Izaäk Schmidt. In 1770 he left for Paris, where he studied for a year with Jacques-Philippe Le Bas and also met the Dutch artists Hermanus Numan and Izaak Jansz de Wit. A year later, Vinkeles returned permanently to Amsterdam and began producing countless stage and book illustrations, historical prints, topographical scenes, portrait engravings, painting reproductions, and so on. That same year he was invited by Catherine the Great of Russia to become director of the Saint Petersburg Art Academy, but declined.
In 1770 Vinkeles left for Paris, where he studied with Jacques-Philippe Le Bas and met the Dutch artists Hermanus Numan and Izaak de Wit. A year later, Vinkeles returned permanently to Amsterdam and worked making prints for book illustrations, including portraits, topographical and architectural prints, copies after Dutch masters, and theatre sets. That same year he was invited by Catherine the Great of Russia to become director of the Saint Petersburg Art Academy, but declined.
Vinkeles's works are an important historical record of the city of Amsterdam. They can be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, among others.
