Dirck Pesser

Dirck Jansz Pesser (c. 1585 - buried September 3, 1651) was a Dutch brewer from Rotterdam, best known today for his portrait by Rembrandt. He was an important member of the Rotterdam Remonstrant community in the early 17th century.

He was the son of the brewer Jan Dammasz Pesser, who had founded the brewery "De Witte Leeuw" (The White Lion) at the end of the 16th century at the Leuvehaven in Rotterdam. On December 18, 1612 Dirck married Haesje Jacobs van Cleyburg. Dirck's older brother Dammas took over his father's brewery, and Dirk himself founded in 1619 the brewery "De Zwarte Leeuw" (The Black Lion, a lion was featured in the Pesser family's coat of arms) in four buildings on the Wijnstraat (Wine Street) near the Wijnhaven (Wine Harbor).

Dirck and his wife Haesje van Cleyburg, who he had married in Brielle on 18 December 1612, posed for the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn 22 years later in 1634. The painting of Dirck is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The pendant to this picture of Pesser's wife is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.