At age eight, Jan Lievens was already apprenticed to a local painter. The Leiden native then trained in Amsterdam with Pieter Lastman until, at the ripe old age of twelve, Lievens began his career as an independent artist. During the mid-1620s Lievens was a close friend of Rembrandt van Rijn, and they collaborated on paintings. Lievens's pictures from this period show his talent for working on a l
