Gerard Dou

Born in Leiden on 7 April 1613, the son of a glass-engraver. After initially following his father's trade, he was trained by the engraver, Bartholomeus Dolendo, before studying with Rembrandt from February 1628 until the latter's departure to Amsterdam in 1631-2. He seems to have remained in Leiden for almost his entire life, and died there on 9 February 1675. From Rembrandt's early style Dou developed his own, more literally descriptive manner of painting. His pictures, of widely diverse subject-matter, are generally small in scale and remarkable for their meticulous finish. His detailed technique was widely admired and emulated by his followers, who comprise the so-called Leiden school of 'fine' painters, the influence of which continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His pupils included his nephew Dominicus van Tol, Pieter van Slingelandt, Godfried Schalcken and perhaps Gabriel Metsu. Among the many recorded collectors of his work were Charles II, the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and Queen Christina of Sweden. Her representative in the Netherlands, Pieter Spiering, paid the artist a substantial annuity for the right of first refusal to his paintings. Dou's drawings are rare and in general have been little studied.