Gerard de Lairesse is a Dutch painter and theoretician of art. His lectures and paintings allowed him to become one of the most influential people in the art world in Holland. He studied under a classical artist growing up, and was very influenced by Rembrandt. He lived most of his life in Amsterdamn where he did mainly etchings and paintings of mythological scenes. He went blind in 1690, which is when he began lecturing on art theory. These lectures were fathered into a handbook that became one of the most widely read art pieces in the Dutch area.
