Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693) was one of Rembrandt's most talented students.

He came to Amsterdam from Dordrecht at the age of about 15 to apprentice with the great painter.

Until about 1660, Maes mainly painted genre scenes in the style of Rembrandt, with many light-dark contrasts and warm colors.

Maes then switched to painting portraits. In this way he came to the same specialty as his teacher in a roundabout way. Mae's portraits were adapted to the fashion of the time: smoother and more detailed and also brighter and lighter in color.

This approach was successful and Maes became a much sought after and very productive painter of the Baroque state portrait. From 1653 to 1673 Maes lived again in Dordrecht. He then returned to Amsterdam, where he spent the last twenty years of his life