Cornelis de Graeff was the oldest son of Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and his wife Aeltje Boelens Loen. He grew up in the Niezel, a small street not far from the Oude Kerk. De Graeff was crippled for life in the left arm by a childhood accident, as can be seen in his painting. At twenty he went to Paris and in 1633 he married Geertruid Overlander (1609–1634), daughter of Volkert Overlander, whose brother-in-law was Frans Banning Cocq, the captain in Rembrandt's "Night Watch". She died only a few months later and he remarried with Catharina Hooft, nineteen years younger and his first wife's cousin (her mother was another Geertruid Overlander, 1577–1653, the sister of Catharinas father). They had two children: Pieter de Graeff and Jacob de Graeff. The married couple inhabited a fine building with precious woodwork, not far from the city hall, at what is now Herengracht 216.