Dutch painter. His parents were Esaias Davidsz Meurant (1588-1664), of Amsterdam, and Margaritha Meulemans (c. 1593-1665), of Antwerp. His father was a teacher in the Old Side Latin School in Amsterdam, and he was also the author of several poetry collections. Emanuel was the oldest of six children. He traveled in France and elsewhere between 1642 and 1648.
In 1654, he married Elisabeth Assuerus (c. 1623-before 1670), the couple had at least two children. He left Amsterdam by 1665 when he was living in Naarden, and from 1670 onward he lived in Leeuwarden. He married there Berberke Willems (b. 1629) in 1670. He is documented as in Leeuwarden between 1670 and 1680, and was still a resident there in 1696.
Murant's early paintings of cottages and barns in rural landscapes are reminiscent of Philips Wouwerman, Paulus Potter, and the Haarlem artists Cornelis Decker and Roelof van Vries. Works of the 1650s already reveal detailed passages of brickwork, which anticipate the more minute descriptions found in later paintings.
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