Jan Josephsz. van Goyen (1596–1656) was born in Leiden and worked extensively in South Holland. He only painted landscapes and townscapes – at least those are his only known paintings. From the age of 10, he was repeatedly apprenticed to local painters for a few months at a time, but never for long. That is not until he was apprenticed to Willem Gerritz. in Hoorn, where he lasted a few years. Van Goyen also made a trip to France with Gerritz. After returning, he started working in the studio of Esaias van de Velde, a landscape painter in Haarlem. It seems he finally found his calling there. By 1618, he was back in Leiden, where he enrolled in the city’s Guild of St Luke (artists’ guild) and got married. By 1632, the Van Goyen family was living in The Hague, at that time a city of 650 artists. In 1638, he became head of The Hague’s Guild of St Luke.