Oriental writer cutting his pen

At the upper left we find the signature of the artist, Benjamin Gerritsz Cuyp. He was a pupil of his stepbrother Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp and an uncle of the famous Aelbert Cuyp. Given the fact that there are few paintings that so clearly demonstrate a connection between Cuyp’s work and that of his great role model, Rembrandt, the panel, which until now has been virtually ignored in the literature, thus plays a not unimportant role in our conception of the artist.