The Innere Burgplatz in Vienna

Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627 in Dordrecht – 19 October 1678 in Dordrecht) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who was also a poet and author on art theory.

Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten trained first with his father Dirk van Hoogstraten and stayed in Dordrecht until about 1640. On the death of his father, he moved to Amsterdam where he entered the workshop of Rembrandt. A short time later, he started out on his own as a master and painter of portraits.

He later made several travels which took him (1651) to Vienna, Rome and London, finally retiring to Dordrecht. There he married in 1656, and held an appointment as provost of the mint.

A sufficient number of Van Hoogstraten's works have been preserved which show that he strove to imitate different styles at different times. In a portrait dated 1645, currently in the Lichtenstein collection in Vienna, he imitated Rembrandt. He continued in this vein until as late as 1653 when he produced a figure of a bearded man looking out of a window. This, one of the more characteristic examples of his style, is exhibited in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.