Jan de Bray
Jan de Bray ( – April 4, 1697) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem until the age of 60, when he went bankrupt and moved to Amsterdam. Jan de Bray was influenced by his father Salomon de Bray, and the portraitists Bartholomeus van der Helst, and Frans Hals. De Bray's works are mainly portraits, often of groups, and history paintings. He specialised in combining the two genres in the portrait historié, portraits of historical figures using contemporary figures, including himself and his family. Among his finest works are two versions of the Banquet of Cleopatra, using his own family, including himself, as models (Royal Collection, 1652, and Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire, 1669). The second version has great pathos, as most of those depicted had died in the plague of 1663–4. Biography Jan de Bray was born in Haarlem. According to Houbraken he was the most famous pupil of his father, the painter, architect and poet Salomon de Bray. Houbraken called Jan the "pearl in Haarlem's crown". Houbraken saw a painting by de Bray of David and the Return of the Ark of the Covenant in the collection of Arnoud van Halen in