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 This work has been assigned to the artist's early years because there is a lack of dated works. The subject of an artist in his studio had been well-established as a pictorial tradition by the time this was painted. There are many objects in the painting, a globe, a lute, a parasol, and a suit of armor. His compositions are full of objects like this.
Dou originally a stained glass artist, was renowned for his technique of illusion. At the age of fourteen he apprenticed himself, to Rembrandt who at the time was only twenty-one. Dou worked as a pupil for Rembrandt until 1631, when he left for Amsterdam. With his technique of rendering objects his paintings were prized by collectors and demanded high prizes. He is considered the most important representative of the so-called fine painting, a very detailed style of painting, requiring the finest brushes and often a magnifying glass to give realistic rendering of the smallest detail. Dou was the only pupil of Rembrandt who painted more than the occasional self portrait. He painted at least twelve. Dou's self portraits differ from his teacher's in that they always contain staffage that is replete with meaning.
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