Cornelis van Poelenburch was one of the very few painters of the Dutch Golden Age to acquire international renown during his lifetime. Only three Dutch artists were honoured with mentions by all of the seventeenth-century biographers who included Netherlandish artists, the others being Rembrandt and Gerrit Dou. His paintings were prized by well-to-do and often aristocratic collectors who were willing to pay high prices for them. Grand-Duke Cosimo II de' Medici, for example, kept four of Poelenburch's paintings in his private quarters and Stadholder Frederick Henry and his consort owned more...