Ferdinand Bol

Ferdinand Bol was one of Rembrandt’s most successful pupils, and his early paintings are so close to his master’s warm light and golden shadows that many were sold as Rembrandts in the 19th century. Later he moved towards a brighter, smoother and more elegant style that suited Amsterdam’s wealthy patrons.

Born in Dordrecht in 1616, he joined Rembrandt’s household in Amsterdam in the 1630s and set up his own studio in 1641. By the mid-1650s he received more official commissions than any other painter in the city, including large works for the new Town Hall, now the Royal Palace, such as Pyrrhus and Fabricius. He also painted group portraits of the city’s governors, like the Governors of the Wine Merchants’ Guild in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. After his second marriage in 1669 he stopped painting. He died in Amsterdam in 1680.

A Scholar at His Desk shows the Rembrandt side of his work.