Still Life With Pitcher, Tazza, Ham And Carnation. Workshop Of Pieter Claesz

Oil on reinforced panel. Dutch school from the mid-17th century, workshop of Pieter Claesz (1596/98 – 1661).
Our composition belongs to a genre brought to its peak by Pieter Claesz: still life with a monochrome tendency. In an apparent disorder where dishes and pieces of goldwork are placed pell-mell on an entablature, the painter invites the viewer to feast, the profusion of objects evoking abundance. Faithful to the art of Claesz, our painting has a great harmony which finds its balance through skillfully measured weights of shadow and light. As a goldsmith would have done, he chisels an upside-down silver tazza and like a pewter potter, he unfolds a tableware playing with the day. Our work, whose color palette is concentrated in shades of brown, ocher and gray, is far removed from the opulent and extroverted art of Flanders, it invites introspection. Here a tazza is overturned, there a knife and a pewter dish are balanced. Ready to fall, they remind us of the fragility of life. The development of still life, as a genre in its own right, is closely linked to the history of the Netherlands. Compared to Catholic Flanders under the supervision of Spain, the United Provinces of the North, Calvinist, acquired great economic prosperity thanks to their autonomy and their traders. Haarlem is the epitome of refuge cities where people from Flanders and Antwerp settle in search of freedom. The city is not only that of Frans Hals but also the center of Mannerist painting in Holland, and it has several masters specializing in the genre of still life, of which Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda are the leaders.

As is standard for Dutch paintings of the Golden Age, our still life is presented in a powerful reverse profile frame in ebonized wood.
Dimensions: 64 x 88 cm the panel – 90 x 114 cm with the frame.
Sold with invoice and certificate of expertise.
Related work: The arrangement of the objects in space, the format and the chromatic range do not fail to recall the painting kept in a private collection and presented at the Zurich exhibition in 2004: Entablature with a large-bellied pitcher, with an inverted silver goblet, roemer, fluted glass and roasted capon dated 1647.

Biography: Pieter Claesz (Berchem 1596/98 – Haarlem 1661) settled in Haarlem before 1617, a city in which he worked until his death. With Willem Claesz Heda, he is the master of the Haarlem school of still life with a “monochromist” tendency. His early works, executed between 1621 and 1630 (Still life, 1624, Rijksmuseum; Vanitas, 1624, Dresden Gemälde Galerie or Still life with musical instruments, 1625, Louvre Museum) present a certain proximity to the art of Floris Van Dyck or Nicolaes Gillis; with a slightly diving point of view and fairly strong colors. Its truly “monochrome” period extends over ten years, from approximately 1630 to 1640. And one of the best examples is his Still Life of Breakfast painted in 1636 (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam), more concentrated and more coherent, where the objects are more linked and where the very muted general tone is organized around a range of gray-browns. Through the refinement and intimacy of his compositions, Pieter Claesz opened the way to a new conception of still life. Pieter Claesz is the father of the landscape painter Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem.

Bibliography:
- BRUNNER-BULST, Martina, Pieter Claesz, 2004, Luca;
- BIESBOER Pieter, BRUNNER-BULST Martina, GREGORY Henry D, KLEMM Christian, Pieter Claesz Master of Haarlem Still Life, 2004, Belser;
- MEIJER, Fred G., The Ashmolean Museum Oxford. Catalog of the Collection of Paintings, The Collection of Dutch and Flamish Still life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy Linda Ward, 2003, Zwolle;
- GRIMM, Claus, Flemish, Dutch and German still lifes, 1988, Herscher;
- GREINDL, Edith, Flemish still life painters in the 17th century, 1983, Michel Lefebvre Editions d'Art