Biography

Dutch painter, a pupil of Rembrandt. He was active in Leiden (1629-31), Amsterdam (1631-32), Leiden (1632-41), Deventer (1641-43), and Amsterdam (1643-45). He was entrusted to Rembrandt's care in Leiden at a young age. He moved to Amsterdam around the same time as Rembrandt and disappeared into a limbo from which he was not rescued until the end of the nineteenth century, when his single painting bearing his signature was found. In his early work the motifs are closely observed and described in minute, even painful detail. There is a certain dryness and sharpness in the definition of form. He painted smallish figures on panel, as Rembrandt did.