Jan Lievens

Jan Lievens (1607–1674) was born in Leiden, the son of an embroiderer, and at about the age of ten was sent to study for two years with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. By twelve he was working independently in Leiden, and his early talent drew the attention of Maurice, Prince of Orange. From about 1626 to 1631 he shared a studio with Rembrandt, a year his senior, and their competitive collaboration makes some works of those years hard to attribute. Constantijn Huygens judged Lievens the more inventive of the two, and Rembrandt the more expressive. They parted in 1631, when Lievens went to England, where he painted for the Earl of Arundel and came under the influence of van Dyck. He later settled in Antwerp, served as court painter in The Hague and Berlin, and returned to Amsterdam in 1655, painting a chimneypiece for the new city hall in 1661. He died in debt. Here: The Visitation.