Dou was born at Leiden. He was a pupil of Rembrandt from 1628 until the latter moved to Amsterdam, probably in 1631. Dou rarely travelled outside Leiden, although he was invited to England by Charles II. He was a genre painter and founder of the school of the so-called fijnschilders (fine painters). His style was greatly admired and his work was much sought after in his own day. A number of pictures, for example, were sent to Sweden for the collection of Queen Christina. His reputation lasted into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

This work has recently been doubted by scholars and may be a copy after a lost original of c. 1650. The effect of candle light in Rembrandt is very evocative and powerful (see for example CW 158, 405000) but seldom explicit; Dou actually incorporates the light source into his images, especially in the 1650s. In this case every surface in this complex interior is lit as if from the single flame of an oil lamp. A flirting couple are disturbed by a figure as they look at drawings and illustrated books together. He is holding an oil lamp, she a sheet of paper filled with writing and sketches; a girl with a lantern enters the door on the left; a basket or cage hangs from the centre.