Jan van Neck

He was born in Naarden and became a painter, draftsman, engraver, and interior decorator.[1] According to Houbraken his father was a doctor who apprenticed him to Jacob Adriaensz Backer to learn draftsmanship.[2] He painted historical allegories, portraits, and scenes of naked women bathing. Houbraken liked especially an altarpiece in the Wallonian Catholic church of Amsterdam by his hand. Houbraken wrote that he was a friendly man with many entertaining stories, and he consulted him as a source for his books while he was bedridden. He mentions also that Neck was a great friend of Dirck Ferreris, whose collection of drawings and papierkunst or paper-art (probably paper-cuts) came into his possession on his death.[2]