Gerrit Reynst

Gerard Jr. lived in a house called De Hoop at Keizersgracht 209 that he later made into an art museum.

Reynst never lived to see his book published, since he drowned in the canal in front of his Amsterdam house in 1658.

[1] Gerrit's collection included Italian old-master paintings and antiquities, such as The Ecstasy of St Paul by Johann Liss.

The Dutch Republic bought 24 of the best Italian paintings and 12 of the best Classical sculptures from Gerrit's widow in 1660 for 80,000 gulden, via Heer van Outshoorn.

(A series of engravings of pictures from his collection was made sometime before his death, including one by Jeremias Falk of Guercino's Semiramis.)

Reynst (far right), with (from left) his fellow aldermen and contemporaries Cornelis Jan Witsen , Roelof Bicker , and Simon van Hoorn .
The house, where Reynst lived, known as Hope , was a copy of the house in the middle. The two houses shown here on Keizersgracht were called Belief and Love . Engraving around 1770 by Caspar Philips