Eberhard Keil | Pupil of Rembrandt

Eberhard Keil or Keyl dit Monsù Bernardo (1624-1687) was a Danish Baroque painter who became a pupil of Rembrandt.

Keil was born in Helsingør.

According to the RKD he was a pupil of the Danish painter Morten Steenwinkel, who became a pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the years 1642-1644.

In 1645-1648 he was with Hendrick Uylenburgh and he had a workshop of his own in the years 1649-1651.

In 1656 he travelled to Rome, and is registered there until 1687, when he died.

He also worked in Bergamo and Venice.

He was influenced by Jan Lievens and in turn influenced the painters Pietro Bellotto (1627-1700), Antonio Cifrondi and Giacomo Francesco Cipper. | Source: © Wikipedia

Bernhard Keilhau was born at Elsinore in Denmark, the son of a German painter of modest ability from Meissen and his Dutch wife.

After six years of training in Denmark, Keilhau was able, through his mother's contacts, to gain a position in Rembrandt's studio in Amsterdam, in which he spent two years (1642-4).

He subsequently worked for the prominent dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh for three years, and then ran his own shop in Amsterdam there for four years, before travelling to Italy.

He arrived in Venice in 1651, moved to Bergamo in 1654 for a number of months, and sojourned briefly in Milan before setting out for Rome.

There, in 1657, despite the plague which had infested the city since the previous summer, Keilhau settled definitively, marrying and converting to Catholicism. | Source: © Christie's

Bernhard Keilhau nacque a Elsinore in Danimarca, figlio di un pittore tedesco di modeste capacità di Meissen e di sua moglie olandese.

Dopo sei anni di formazione in Danimarca, Keilhau fu in grado, tramite i contatti di sua madre, di ottenere un posto nello studio di Rembrandt ad Amsterdam, dove trascorse due anni (1642-4).

Successivamente lavorò per il famoso mercante Hendrick Uylenburgh per tre anni, e poi gestì il suo negozio ad Amsterdam per quattro anni, prima di viaggiare in Italia.

Arrivò a Venezia nel 1651, si trasferì a Bergamo nel 1654 per un certo numero di mesi e soggiornò brevemente a Milano prima di partire per Roma.

Lì, nel 1657, nonostante la peste che aveva infestato la città dall'estate precedente, Keilhau si stabilì definitivamente, sposandosi e convertendosi al cattolicesimo. | Fonte: Christie's