Samuel van Hoogstraten

Allegory of Time and Eternity

Samuel van Hoogstraten began his career painting tronies in the Amsterdam studio of his illustrious teacher Rembrandt. Pure allegories such as the present are a rarity in Hoogstraten’s painted oeuvre. Celeste Bruscati speculated that our painting may have been intended to commemorate Samuel’s younger brother Jan who died prematurely in 1654 in Vienna where both were staying. This would date our work to the 1650s.