Johannes Rosierse specialized in genre scenes lit by candles. Born in the city of Dordrecht, the hometown of artist Godfried Schalcken (1643 – 1706), the Dutch artist most associated with the production of candlelit paintings. Rosierse greatly admired Schalcken’s work and was inspired by Dutch Golden Age ‘fine painter’ such as Gerrit Dou (1613 – 1675), who had studied with Rembrandt, and Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635 – 1681), among others.
