Ferdinand Bol, a Dutch portrait, history scene and still-life painter who was a student of Rembrandt van Rijn, was born in Dordrecht, Holland in 1616. He studied in Rembrandt's studio around 1635, and this association had a strong influence on the early painting of Bol, but as he got older, his palette became increasingly lighter and distanced from his Master.

Bol was the son of a successful surgeon, and his early art training, before he studied with Rembrandt, was in his home town of Dordrecht. The fact that in 1640, he was a legal witness to a document about Saskia, the wife of Rembrandt, suggests he was then a studio assistant and likely close to the family.

By 1642, he set up his ...