The Painter of Amsterdam’s Jewish Folk Life Amsterdam is a city of layers, and Gerard Johan Staller spent his life peeling them back. Born in Amsterdam, he grew up in the shadow of the Jewish neighborhood on Rapenburg, a proximity that would define his visual language. He did not merely observe the city; he lived within its pulse, moving from the Oudezijds Voorburgwal to the Haarlemmerstraat. His early years were spent mastering the t…