Willem Drost was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker of history paintings and portraits who died young. He is a mysterious figure, closely associated with Rembrandt, with very few paintings clearly attributable to him. He was presumably born at Amsterdam, in what was then known as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, but when and where is unknown. Around 1650, according to Houbraken, he became a student of Rembrandt, eventually developing a close working relationship, painting history scenes, biblical compositions, symbolic studies of a solitary figure, as well as portraits. As a... student, his 1654 painting titled Bathsheba was inspired by Rembrandt's painting done in the same year on the same subject and given the same title, though their treatments are rather different; both Drost’s and Rembrandt’s paintings are in the Louvre in Paris. According to Houbraken he was a painter of historical allegories who had been a pupil of Rembrandt. Houbraken saw a Johannes Predicatie by him that was well composed and painted.
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| Birthdate: | April 19, 1633 |
| Birthplace: | Amsterdam |
| Date of death: | February 25, 1659 |