Govaert Flinck was one of Rembrandt's most talented pupils. He is recorded in the master's Amsterdam studio from 1635 until 1636, when, according to his early biographer Houbraken, he established himself as an autonomous artist (A. Houbraken, De Groote Schouburgh de Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, Amsterdam, 1718-1721, II, p. 18).

Rembrandt greatly influenced Flinck's career, which is especially evident in Flinck's lasting interest in the genre of the tronie: a type of imaginary portrait or character study, painted from a living model but depicting a stock character or a particular personality. Such tronies by Rembrandt and his pupils possess as much (and on occasion even mo...