De Lairesse suffered from hereditary [REF] or congenital syphilis, which caused him to go blind around 1690.
In Het groot schilderboeck, De Lairesse wrote his disapproval of realism by Dutch Golden Age painters like Rembrandt, Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade and Frans Hals because they often portrayed everyday scenes and ordinary people such as soldiers, farmers, maids, and even beggars.