Soft gold and rough flame - two paintings

Boy in a Cape and Turban (Portrait of Prince Rupert of the Palatinate), by Jan Lievens, circa 1631.

By Candlelight, by Martin Ferdinand Quadal, circa 1780s-90s.

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Jan Lievens (24 October 1607, Leiden – 4 June 1674, Amsterdam), Dutch painter. He is most often associated with Rembrandt; they shared a studio from about 1626 - they were nineteen and twenty - to 1631 and worked in a similar style, so much so that it's caused difficulties in the attribution of their works from this period. He had started his training at a very young age and was working as an independent artist by the age of twelve. His extreme precocity made him something of a celebrity and, while still a teenager, he won many important commissions from royalty, mayors, and city burghers. When he and Rembrandt left their shared studio, Lievens went to work in England. He later worked in Antwerp, and as a court painter in The Hague and Berlin. He married twice, and died not long after the Rampjaar - the political and economic crisis of 1672; among others affected, many artists were ruined - his family having to use any inheritance to pay off his debts.

Martin Ferdinand Quadal (28 October 1736, Niemtschitz – 10 January 1811, St. Petersburg), Moravian-Austrian painter and engraver. He painted animal pieces, as well as military scenes, genre subjects, and portraits. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and lived in that city for several years. Early on, he traveled to London, then visited France and Italy, lived and worked in Vienna again, and then in St. Petersburg from 1797 to 1804. After a second visit to London, he returned to St. Petersburg, where he died at the age of seventy-four.