Jan de Bray

Among his finest works are two versions of the Banquet of Cleopatra, using his own family, including himself, as models (Royal Collection, 1652, and Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire, 1669).

According to Houbraken he was the most famous pupil of his father, the painter, architect and poet Salomon de Bray.

[3] Houbraken saw a painting by de Bray of David and the Return of the Ark of the Covenant in the collection of Arnoud van Halen in Amsterdam, dated 1697, that he admired for its realistic flesh tones in the forms of David playing the harp and the Levites behind him.

Houbraken also mentioned some black and red chalk drawings by him that he saw at the Amsterdam home of Isaak del Court.

[4] His brother Dirck de Bray was a flower painter who later became a monk in the monastery at Gaesdonck near Goch.

De Bray and his wife as Ulysses and Penelope , 1668
In his family portrait depicting the banquet of Antony and Cleopatra at the moment when Cleopatra puts her earring in the wine, Jan is depicted standing on the left. In the earlier version, the sons look up to the father, and in this version, the brothers (all since deceased except for Dirck) look at Jan.
The Painter's Guild in 1675. Jan de Bray's self-portrait is the second from the left, and his brother Dirck de Bray is standing upper right.