Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

The son of a goldsmith, van den Eeckhout was a native of Amsterdam, where he lived and worked. He was a pupil of Rembrandt, probably in the late 1630s, and is said by Houbraken to have been a 'great friend' of his master.

Van den Eeckhout developed a style of genre interiors which anticipate those of Pieter de Hooch, and he painted landscapes in a manner similar to those of his fellow Rembrandt pupil, Roelant Roghman.

Van den Eeckhout was also a portrait painter and an etcher. He was a poet as well, and in 1657 composed a poem in praise of his friend, the landscape painter Willem Schellinks.