Gerbrand was born in
Amsterdam, the son of a jeweller, a
Mennonite who fled after 1585 from
Antwerp to the north. In 1631 his mother died. His father's second wife was Cornelia Dedel, the daughter of a founder of the
Delft chamber of the
Dutch East India Company.
Arnold Houbraken records Van den Eeckhout was a pupil of
Rembrandt. A fellow pupil to
Ferdinand Bol,
Nicolaes Maes and
Govert Flinck, but regarded as inferior to them in skill and experience; he soon assumed Rembrandt's manner with such success that his pictures were confused with those of his master. Eeckhout does not merely copy the subjects; he also takes the shapes, the figures, the
Jewish dress and the pictorial effects of his master. It is difficult to form an exact judgment of Eeckhout's qualities at the outset of his career. His earliest pieces are probably those in which he more faithfully reproduced Rembrandt's peculiarities. Exclusively his is a tinge of green in shadows marring the harmony of the work, a gaudiness of jarring tints, uniform surface and a touch more quick than subtle. Eeckhout matriculated early in the
Gild of Amsterdam. As he grew older Eeckhout succeeded best in
portraits, for example that of Isaac Commelin (formerly identified as a portrait of the historian
Olfert Dapper (1669)), in the
Städel collection in Frankfurt. Eeckhout occasionally varied his style. He followed
Gerard ter Borch in
Gambling Soldiers, at
Stafford House, and a ''Soldiers' Merrymaking'', in the collection of the
marquess of Bute. Amongst the best of Eeckhout's works are
Christ in the Temple (1662), at
Munich, and the
Haman and Mordecai of 1665, at
Luton House. Eeckhout, unmarried, was also appreciated as art connoisseur, and dealing with poets and scientists. At the end of his life he was living with his sister-in-law, a widow, on
Herengracht, at a very prestigious part of the canal. He died in Amsterdam. ==Works==