Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout was a Dutch Golden Age painter who lived from 19 August 1621 to 29 September 1674 and was a favourite student of Rembrandt. He was also an etcher, an amateur poet, a collector and an adviser on art. He was born in Amsterdam, the son of a Mennonite jeweller who had fled from Antwerp to the north after 1585. Arnold Houbraken records him as a pupil of Rembrandt, a fellow pupil of Ferdinand Bol, Nicolaes Maes and Govert Flinck, and he soon assumed the manner of his master with such success that his pictures were confused with Rembrandt.