Career
He is also known as a printmaker and draughtsman. Barend Graat was baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk (Amsterdam). Though he never traveled to Italy, he became proficient in making small Italianate landscapes and genre pieces in the manner of Pieter van Laer.
Graat had connections with January Vos, a catholic poet and playwright.
In 1664 he bought a plot and had a house build on Leidsegracht. In 1668 and 1670 two daughters were baptized in a hidden church.
In 1672 he was one of the painters evaluating a collection of paintings sold by Gerrit Uylenburgh to pronounce their authenticity. Foreign fifteen years the painter organized an academy at his house.
Graat lived to the great age of 81 and was active as a decoration painter, painting Grisailles and over-the-mantel pieces for the regent families of Amsterdam, many of which survive today.
The Amsterdams Historisch Museum has an Allegory of Care painting in their collection from the former Old Men"s Almshouse, based on an Emblem by Cesare Ripa.