Scholar with his Books

Eeckhout was a Dutch painter of portraits, religious subjects and genre, active in Amsterdam. He was a friend and favourite pupil of Rembrandt and a close imitator of his style. In about 1655 he painted a number of scenes in the totally different manner of Ter Borch.

Eeckhout’s Scholar with his Books gives us no impression of the wisdom evoked in Rembrandt’s portrait of the Old Rabbi. Here we see an industrious pedant whose learning is indicated only by external objects-the books and the globe. The learned men portrayed by Vermeer and Rembrandt are men of exceptional qualities but their portraits cannot be called genre paintings. This picture by Eeckhout is certainly a genre painting, the sitter, however, is not shown to be a sage but a burgher. The warm brownish-red and yellowish colours and the manner of painting are reminiscent of Rembrandt’s later style.