Frans van Schooten
Frans van Schooten Jr. also rendered as Franciscus van Schooten (15 May 1615, Leiden – 29 May 1660, Leiden) was a Dutch mathematician who is most known for popularizing the analytic geometry of René Descartes.
Frans van Schooten
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves
Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan
Van Schooten's father, Frans van Schooten Senior was a professor of mathematics at the University of Leiden, having Christiaan Huygens, Johann van Waveren Hudde, and René de Sluze as students.
Van Schooten met Descartes in 1632 and read his Géométrie (an appendix to his Discours de la méthode) while it was still unpublished. Finding it hard to understand, he went to France to study the works of other important mathematicians of his time, such as François Viète and Pierre de Fermat. When Frans van Schooten returned to his home in Leiden in 1646, he inherited his father's position and one of his most important pupils, Huygens.
The pendant marriage portraits of him and his wife Margrieta Wijnants were painted by Rembrandt and are kept in the National Gallery of Art:[1]