Biography

Dutch painter and etcher. He was a pupil of Rembrandt in the mid-1630s and in his early work imitated his master's style so well as to create occasional difficulty in distinguishing between them. The portrait of Elizabeth Bas in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, is the best-known instance; it was acknowledged as a Rembrandt until 1911, when it was attributed to Bol, and although this opinion is still generally accepted, there has been renewed support for Rembrandt as the author.

As Bol's career prospered, both as a portraitist and a painter of historical subjects, his style moved away from that of Rembrandt, becoming blander and more elegant in the style of van der Helst. In 1669 he married a wealthy widow and seems to have stopped painting. Sir Godfrey Kneller was Bol's most distinguished pupil.