Leiden 1613-1675 was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly-polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe l'oeil "niche" paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. His first instructor in drawing and design was Bartholomew Dolendo, an engraver; and he afterwards learned the art of glass-painting under Peter Kouwhoorn. At the age of 15 he became a pupil of Rembrandt, with whom he continued for three years. From the great master of the Dutch school he acquired his skill in coloring, and in the more subtle effects of chiaroscuro; and the style of Rembrandt is reflected in several of his earlier pictures, notably in a portrait of himself at the age of 22, in the Bridge-water House gallery, and in the "Blind Tobit going to meet his Son", at Wardour Castle. At a comparatively early point in his career, however, he had formed a manner of his own distinct from, and indeed in some respects antagonistic to, that of his master. Gifted with unusual clearness of vision and precision of manipulation, he cultivated a minute and elaborate style of treatment; and probably few painters ever spent more time and pains on all the details of their pictures down to the most trivial. He is said to have spent five days in painting a hand; and his work was so fine that he found it necessary to manufacture his own brushes. Notwithstanding the minuteness of his touch, however, the general effect was harmonious and free from stiffness, and his color was always admirably fresh and transparent. He was fond of representing subjects in lantern or candle light, the effects of which he reproduced with a fidelity and skill which no other master has equaled. He frequently painted by the aid of a concave mirror, and to obtain exactness looked at his subject through a frame crossed with squares of silk thread. His practice as a portrait painter, which was at first considerable, gradually declined, sitters being unwilling to give him the time that he deemed necessary. His pictures were always small in size, and represented chiefly subjects in still life. Upwards of 200 are attributed to him, and specimens are to be found in most of the great public collections of Europe. His chef-d'oeuvre is generally considered to be The dropsical woman, 1663, and The Dutch Housewife, 1650, both in the Louvre. The Evening School, in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, is the best example of the candlelight scenes in which he excelled. In the National Gallery, London, favorable specimens are to be seen in the Poulterer's Shop,   Related Paintings of Gerard Dou :. | Young Woman in a Black Veil | Eremiten | self-portrait with a Palette | portratt av rembrandts mor | Trumpet-Player in front of a Banquet |
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Anthonie van Borssom
(January 2, 1631, Amsterdam - march 19, 1677, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. According to the RKD he was an Italianate landscape painter who copied works of popular landscape painters of his day in Amsterdam such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Paulus Potter, Aelbert Cuyp (church interieurs), Nicolaes Berchem, Philips Koninck, Jan Wijnants, Aert van der Neer (moonlit landscapes), and Cornelis Vroom. He lived and worked in Amsterdam but made a trip in 1650-1655 along the Rhine and spent time in Kleve.He was buried in the Westerkerk.
Jean-Baptiste Santerre
French Baroque Era Painter, 1651-1717 The 12th child of a merchant, he was apprenticed to the portrait painter Jean Lemaire before entering the busy studio of the history painter Bon Boullogne. Although he executed some history paintings, he began to specialize in portraiture early in his career. The Portrait of Two Actresses (1699; St Petersburg, Hermitage), clearly influenced by Fran?ois de Troy, shows Santerre's interest in the well-known portrait painters of his time. Nevertheless, he was among the first painters in France to absorb the influence of Rembrandt, as in Young Girl at a Window (Orl?ans, Mus. B.-A.; after Rembrandt, London, Dulwich Pict. Gal.). In such portraits as Girl with a Veil
Cesare da Sesto
Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1477-1523, He was an Italian painter of the Renaissance active in Milan and elsewhere in Italy. He was born in Sesto Calende, Lombardy. He is considered one of the Leonardeschi or artists influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, such as Bernardino Luini and Marco D'Oggione. He may have trained or worked with Baldassare Peruzzi in Rome in 1505. Of this period, a lunette in Sant'Onofrio and some paintings in Campagnano Romano are attributed to him. From 1514 he soujourned in Naples for six years. In 1515 he finished a monumental polyptych for the Abbey of Santissima Trinita at Cava de' Tirreni. Back in Milan, he executed a Baptism of Christ, in collaboration with Bernardino Bernazzano (now lost) and a Salome, acquired by Rudolf II and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna.