
1579–1580
Trip to France
He tries to train in Rouen and comes under the influence of the French Renaissance painters of the Fontainebleau school, but is forced to leave.
1581
With Gillis Coignet in Antwerp
Having left France, he enters the workshop of Gillis Coignet in Antwerp as an apprentice, according to Karel van Mander’s Book of Painters.
1583
First official commission from the city
He receives his first official commission from the city, a group portrait, “The Banquet of the Haarlem Civic Guard”. He became Haarlem’s city painter and received many official commissions; as a portraitist he had a great influence on Frans Hals.
1583
Returns to Haarlem
He returns to Haarlem, where he stays for the rest of his life, and brings home from Antwerp the drawings of Bartholomeus Spranger, a leading figure of Antwerp Mannerism, under whose influence he works in his first years.
1587
Founds an academy of art
Together with Karel van Mander and Hendrick Goltzius he founds in Haarlem an academy of art, also called the Academy of the Haarlem Mannerists, from which several skilled painters emerged.
c. 1600
Marries Maritgen Deyman
He marries Maritgen Deyman, the daughter of the mayor of Haarlem.
May one see it?
Braunschweig, Germany
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.