Gerard de Lairesse

Who was Gerard de Lairesse?

Gerard or Gérard de Lairesse was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist.

Lairesse was born in Liège and was the second son of painter Renier de Lairesse. His broad range of talent included music, poetry, and the theatre. He was perhaps the most celebrated Dutch painter in the period following the death of Rembrandt. His treatises on painting and drawing, Grondlegginge der teekenkonst and Groot Schilderboek, were highly influential on 18th-Century painters like Jacob de Wit. Students of De Lairesse included the painter Jan van Mieris. He died in Amsterdam.