Cornelis Troost

Troost was trained as an actor and married the actress Susanna Maria van der Duyn, but became a pupil of Arnold Boonen and gave up his career for painting in 1723.

[1] One of his earliest drawings dated 1708, is of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the bookseller and spy Louis Renard visiting a chic Amsterdam brothel.

A famous work, in his favorite medium of pastel and watercolor, is a five picture series entitled NELRI (Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1740).

The name is derived from the first letters of the Latin inscriptions which accompany five views of the activities of a group of men during a night of reunion.

[6] The inscriptions on the NELRI paintings are: His pupils were Jacobus Buys, Noël Challe, Pieter Tanjé, and his own daughter Sara Troost.