This business, then in a house on Lauriergracht, formerly owned by Govaert Flinck, played a key role in the art world of the Dutch Golden Age.
According to biographer Arnold Houbraken, van Uylenburgh began as a landscape painter and painted rooms in the house of a wealthy man in Amsterdam.
In 1660 he advised the Cornelis and his younger brother, Andries de Graeff, one of the heads of the States-General of the Netherlands on their lavish Dutch Gift to Charles II of England.
Van Uylenburgh hit financial problems in 1675, as a result of the war with France, falling art prices, and possibly due to the damage to his reputation from the Brandenburg affair.
His business went bankrupt and Gerrit moved to London, where Lely exerted his influence at court and secured him the post of Surveyor of the King’s Pictures.