As Marten Jan Bok has pointed out, the name, Stom - the actual name by which our painter was known during his lifetime, though he is generally called Stomer in modern art-historical literature - is of Southern Netherlandish (Flemish) derivation, as many persons bearing that name in the Dutch Republic had emigrated from that region of the Low Countries (M.J. Bok, "Matthias Stom," in Nieuw licht op de Gouden Eeuw; Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten, Utrecht, 1986-1987, p. 333, notes 16,17).

It is entirely conceivable that Matthias Stomer himself was a Flemish émigré to the North. Regardless of whether Stomer did indeed emigrate to the Netherlands, he probably received his artistic training in Utrecht or poss...