Elegant Couple in an Interior

interior

Eglon van der Neer devoted a great deal of attention to the minutest details in his genre paintings - from the foreground to the most distant point in the background - though this did not always serve to heighten the natural effect of these scenes. The very precise and accurate rendering of the various materials sometimes gives his paintings a cool, distant feel. Nevertheless, Van der Neer was highly successful: the opulent interiors and the extremely costly materials he so accurately depicted must have appealed to the imagination of his clients.

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About the Artist

Eglon van der Neer

1634 – 1703

Eglon van der Neer was the son of Aert van der Neer, the Dutch landscapist active in Amsterdam. Eglon painted landscapes as well as history pictures, portraits, and genre scenes, was more peripatetic and had greater financial success than his father. At the beginning of his career Eglon travelled in France where he worked for the Dutch governor of Orange. He returned to Amsterdam by 1659. From 1664 until 1679, Rotterdam was his base. Thereafter he spent a decade in Brussels. He was appointed court painter of Charles II of Spain in 1687; however, he apparently never made the trip to the king's court. In 1690 he accepted the post of court painter to the Elector Palatine, Johann Willhelm in Düsseldorf. Adriaen der Werff, Eglon's pupil, made contact with the Elector Palatine in 1696 and quickly became his favourite. However, Eglon continued to hold his position until his death in 1703.

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