NEER, ARNOULD, or AART VANDER, "the prince of moonlight painters," was born at Amsterdam in 1619. His paintings soon became remarkable for their fidelity to nature, and for their calm poetical tone. He excelled in representing winter scenes; but his favourite subject was the moon shedding down her silver light upon a sleeping hamlet, in the midst of a few trees on the bank of a smooth-flowing river. These moonlight pieces are found all over Europe, and are marked by a monogram, consisting of A. V. D. N. Neer died in 1683.