Dieric Bouts the Elder presumably trained in his native Haarlem. About 1447–48 he married Katharina van der Bruggen (d. 1472), alias Metten Ghelde ('with the money'), the daughter of a wealthy citizen of Leuven in Brabant, where by 1457 he had settled and established a sizeable workshop. They had four children: Dieric Bouts the Younger, Albrecht Bouts, Katharina and Gertrud. After the death of his first wife, Dieric Bouts the Elder married Elizabeth van Voshem, daughter of a former mayor of Leuven. They had no children. The sons of the first marriage were both trained as painters, and Dieric Bouts the Younger apparently inherited his father's shop in 1475, while Albrecht established his own workshop, also in Leuven. Although Dieric the Younger is mentioned in the archives of Leuven, no paintings can be assigned to him with certainty, whereas a number can be ascribed to Albrecht. At least one of Dieric the Younger's sons, Jan Bouts (c. 1478-c. 1530), became a painter.