Van der Poel was born in Delft, the son of a goldsmith, and may have been a student of
Esaias van de Velde and of
Aert van der Neer. According to the
RKD he was the brother of the painter Adriaen Lievensz van der Poel and a student of
Cornelis Saftleven in Rotterdam. Van der Poel was registered with the
Guild of St Luke in Delft on 17 October 1650, where he is listed as a landscape painter. In 1651 van der Poel married Aeltgen Willems van Linschooten in
Maassluis, near
Rotterdam. His most famous paintings depict the
Delft gunpowder explosion of 12 October 1654 and its aftermath; he and his wife were living in the area at the time. Egbert and Aeltgen van der Poel had a son and three daughters. He died in Rotterdam in 1664. ==References==