Leiden in the Seventeenth Century

Leiden, where Gerrit Dou lived and worked, was the second-largest city in Holland after Amsterdam. It was an industrial center with the cloth industry as its main manufacturing base; it also had a flourishing cultural life owing to its university. The thriving cloth industry not only provided work for thousands of artisans but also enabled the boldest entrepreneurs and merchants to amass vast fortunes. Those well-to-do classes were the mainstay of both the local luxury industries and the industrial community. The local school of painting that evolved in the seventeenth century produced artists of international renown. Leading masters included not only Rembrandt (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam) and Jan Lievens (Leiden 1607-1674 Amsterdam), but also Jan Steen (Leiden 1625/1626-1679 Leiden), Frans van Mieris (Leiden 1635-1681 Leiden), and, of course, Gerrit Dou.

Adapted from Marten Jan Bok, "The Artist's Life," Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller, 1996, p. 25.