Dirck Pesser

Who was Dirck Pesser?

Dirck Jansz Pesser was a Dutch brewer from Rotterdam and an important member of that city's active Remonstrant community in the early 17th century.

He was the son of the brewer Jan Dammasz Pesser, who had founded the brewery "De Witte Leeuw" at the end of the 16th century at the Leuvehaven in Rotterdam. On December 18, 1612 Dirck married Haesje Jacobs van Cleyburg. Dirck's older brother Dammas took over his father's brewery, and Dirk himself founded in 1619 the brewery "De Zwarte Leeuw" in four buildings on the Wijnstraat near the Wijnhaven.

Dirck posed for the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn in 1634. The painting is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The piece was acquired by the Frances and Armand Hammer Purchase Fund. As pendants to this picture Rembrandt painted portraits of Pesser's wife, Haesje van Cleyburg, which is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and of his widowed mother Aechje Claes Horst, at the age of 83, which is in the National Gallery, London.