Pieter Quast was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1606. He married Annette Shinters (or Anna Splinters) in 1632. He joined the painters' guild in The Hague in 1634, returned to Amsterdam in 1644 and died there in 1647. He was a book illustrator and printmaker as well as a painter and was noted for his satire and his almost caricature-like portrayal of human figures. His humor, his decidedly personal touch, and an implied moral in spite of its subject matter raises Quast's work above the purely technical expert.

Little is known of Quast's personal life. He lived during the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, a time when an unmistakable moralistic tone drew a sharp line between the virtuous and the sinner. ...