Willem Cornelisz Duyster (1599–1635) was a Dutch Golden Age

Dutch Golden Age

The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 from Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

.

Biography

According to the RKD, his name was taken from his house on the Amsterdam Koningstraat, which was called "De Duystere Werelt", the dim world. He was a pupil of Pieter Codde

Pieter Codde

Pieter Jacobsz. Codde was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits.-Life:Codde was a technically skilled painter...

. He married the sister of the painter Simon Kick

Simon Kick

-Biography:According to the RKD he was the son of the Delft varnish worker Willem Kick. He married Christina Duyster, who he got engaged to on the same day that her brother, the painter Willem Duyster got engaged to Simon's sister Margrieta. Simon and Stijntje became the parents of the painter...

 (1603–1652), who himself married Willem's sister.

Painting career

Duyster's paintings generally depicted genre scenes and portraits, quite often of soldiers. He exhibited a strong ability to paint textiles, accurately characterize his subjects, and to depict relationships between his figures. Duyster's career was cut short when he succumbed to the plague

Bubonic plague

Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

in 1635.