Old Man at the Window

A pupil of Rembrandt, Hoogstraten wrote a treatise on art theory in which he explored the relationship between painting technique and spatial illusion. His speciality was trompe l’oeil, paintings that “deceive the eye” as does this one. An old man is gazing from a meticulously painted window with a stone frame. According to a tradition that is now presumed to be mistaken, the man is Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1579– 1654), who succeeded in gaining permission for Jews to live in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district. The picture was painted while Hoogstratens stay in Vienna.