Adriaen van der Werff (1659 –  1722)

• Was an accomplished Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes.
• Adriaen van der Werff was born in Kralingen, Dutch Republic.
• His brother, Pieter van der Werff, was his principal pupil and assistant.
• At the age of ten he started to take lessons, two years later moving in with Eglon van der Neer.
• At the age of seventeen he founded his own studio in Rotterdam.
• In Rotterdam he later became the head of guild of Saint Luc.
• In 1696, he was paid a visit by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and his wife, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici.
• The couple ordered two paintings to be sent to Cosimo III of Tuscany, Anna Maria Luisa's father, in Florence.
• During the next years Van der Werff traveled regularly between Düsseldorf and his home town.
• In 1703, he became the official court painter and a knight, when his former teacher and predecessor Van der Neer died.
• Van der Werff, with a perfect technique, was paid extremely well by the Elector for his biblical or classical (erotic) paintings.
• In 1716, he lost his job when the Elector died because the treasury was empty.
• Van der Werff became one of the most lauded Dutch painters of his day, gaining a European reputation and an enormous fortune.
• Van der Werff also practised as an architect in Rotterdam.