The son of a Flemish immigrant, calligrapher, and fencing master, Peter Bailly, David studied with his father and artist Jacques de Gheyn II.

[citation needed] Bailly apprenticed with a surgeon-painter Adriaan Verburg[1] in Leiden and then with Cornelius van der Voort, a portrait painter in Amsterdam.

According to artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken, in the winter of 1608 Bailly traveled to Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Augsburg Hamburg, and via Tirol to Venice, and from there to Rome.

[citation needed] On his return voyage, Bailly worked for several German princes including the Duke of Brunswick.

[citation needed] Bailly is known for his vanitas paintings that suggest the transience of life with ephemeral symbols like flowers, candles, musical instruments, skulls, and bubbles.