Willem Drost (1633–1659) was one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils, and he is also considered one of the most mysterious. This book, the first ever devoted to this exceptional artist, unravels many of the mysteries of Drost’s life and career. Curator and art historian Jonathan Bikker offers not only new archival evidence of the artist’s date and place of death, but also a new assessment of Drost’s place in the Rembrandt workshop and in the Venetian art world of the mid-seventeenth century. Drost emerges as one of Rembrandt’s most talented imitators and, despite his short career, an artist with a variety of faces.
The book features a meticulously researched and fully illustrated catalogue raisonné with 38 paintings now attributed to Drost (several formerly attributed to Rembrandt) and 35 other paintings today known only from old sale catalogues or reproductions. The author also discusses 32 paintings he rejects as Drost’s work.