Pieter Quast

[2] According to the Ecartico website, Pieter Jansz Quast (brush), was the son of Jan Sijmensz, a barge master and Sybrich Gerritsdr both from Emden who married in 1603.

[7]His time in The Hague and Amsterdam is marked by constantly moving to poorer quarters, bankruptcy and participation in illegal dice-games.

[11] However the young couple faced a financially bumpy life, with several disturbing happenings due to Annetje's unruly character.

The most imagining scene Annetje's face being mutilated by Gaspar Roebergen with the base of a smashed ("Roemer") glass in their home at the Kalverstraat after she insulted him having visited numerous prostitutes.

In 1647 Pieter Quast lived on the Nes, in a house that, according to a statement dated May 17, 1647, was shabby and uninhabitable due to leaks; he refused to pay the rent.

Mostly producing small social genre paintings with humorous, cartoon-like features, ranging from elegant merry companies to guardroom scenes with officers and (most numerous) groups of peasants or beggars, in a variety of styles which can be related to those of leading artists in these genres, but with personal aspects in the colouring and style.

They "are heavily and powerfully rendered in warm shades of brown, set off by strong local colouring in the principal figures.