Pieter Perret, who was probably of Swiss origin, is documented at Leyden from 1631 until 1664. He is mentioned there as a painter as early as 1632 although he is first recorded as having entered the newly founded guild in 1648.
Perret's activities as a painter are outlined in a Leyden inventory of 1651 where a picture is described as 'a piece of fruit in a basket, with a figure, both (the still life and the figure) are by Perret'. Mr. Willem van de Watering points out that the somewhat dry execution of the portrait in the present picture resembles the portraiture of Godaert Kamper who, emigrating from Germany, had settled in Leyden in about 1633 and, like Perret, became a member of the Leyden guild in 1648.

We are grateful to Mr. Willem van de Watering for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot