merchants wanted large, opulent and refined paintings, and civic leaders filled their town halls with grand displays containing republican messages. As well, ordinary middle class Dutch people began buying art for the first time, creating a high demand for paintings of all kinds. This demand was met by enormous painter guilds. Master painters set up studios to produce large numbers of paintings quickly. Under the master's direction, studio members would specialise in parts of a painting, such as figures in landscapes, or costumes in portraits and history paintings. Masters would sometimes add a few touches to authenticate a work mostly done by pupils, to maximise both speed and price. Numerous art dealers organised commissions on behalf of patrons, as well as buying uncommissioned stock to sell on. Landscape artists did not depend on commissions in the way most painters had to do, and could therefore paint for stock. In Ruisdael's case, it is not known whether he kept stock to sell directly to customers, or sold his work through dealers, or both. Art historians only know of one commission, a work for the wealthy Amsterdam burgomaster Cornelis de Graeff, jointly painted with Thomas de Keyser. Footnotes References Notes Bibliography External links 1620s births 1682 deaths Artists from Haarlem Dutch landscape painters Dutch printmakers Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Landscape artists Painters from Haarlem