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Historical Artist - Willem Drost (1652 - 1663)
Little is known about the life of Dutch painter, Willem Drost and he is only credited with a
handful of works. Consisting of paintings, drawings, and etchings, his small body of work dates
from 1652 to 1653. He appears to have been a follower of Rembrandt. His Portrait of a Young
Woman was once wrongly attributed to the famous artist. Willem Drost's recognized lifetime
output of artwork is very small, while Rembrandt is credited with more than 2,000 paintings and
etchings, the majority of which are not signed. In recent years, some paintings attributed to
Rembrandt have had their authenticity come under question. The importance of these Rembrandt
works is such that the Foundation Rembrandt Research Project was established in Amsterdam to
review all of his works on which there could be a question as to whether it was that of
Rembrandt or one of his distinguished pupils. Scholars have now reattributed a number of
Rembrandt's paintings to these associates.
Drost had evolved into one of Rembrandt's most talented disciples, so much so that his 1654
painting titled: Portrait of a Young Woman with her Hands Folded on a Book was one of the ones
attributed to Rembrandt for more than 300 years. As well, when the portrait of a young man on
horseback titled The Polish Rider was discovered in 1897 it too was attributed to Rembrandt.
Contemporary Dutch Artists
Art Galleries in the Netherlands
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