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Lot Essay
Dated to 1636 both Martina Brunner-Bulst and Fred Meijer, this refined work is a beautiful example of Claesz’s semi-monochromatic ontbijtjes (‘breakfast pieces’). The composition of a simple, pared back arrangement of carefully selected objects revolves around the central motif of an overturned tazza and is entirely in keeping with the artist’s approach in the period. The same tazza recurs in several paintings Claesz produced around the same time, including those today in the Mauritshuis, The Hague; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (all dating to 1636-7). The tazza may even have been owned by Claesz himself, his contemporary Willem Claesz Heda (who included it in a still life of 1633 in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem) or a local silversmith who made it available to both artists.
Pieter Claesz was born in the Flemish town of Berchem and began his career as a painter in Antwerp, joining the city’s Guild of Saint Luke in 1620. In the same year, however, Claesz moved to Haarlem. The city had become popular with emigrees from Flanders in the early seventeenth century, attracted by the region’s growing prosperity and economic expansion under the Twelve Years Truce, which had begun in 1609. Though little is known about Claesz’s career before he arrived in the city, it is likely that the artist was familiar with the work of Flemish still life painters like Osias Beert and Clara Peeters. His assimilation of their use of color and composition with the native pictorial traditions of Haarlem rapidly established him as a leading still life painter in the city. Claesz introduced a heightened degree of realism to the Haarlem still life school. Instead of adopting the high viewpoint and wider variety of colors which were favored by an earlier generation of Haarlem still life painters like Floris van Dijck and Floris van Schooten, Claesz’s paintings employ a low viewpoint, their compositions unified through subtle color schemes comprised mostly of earth tones.
Despite its deceivingly simple composition, the painting was likely intended to draw out far more learned references from the knowledgeable viewer. Claesz’s still lifes must be viewed ‘with the understanding that they are not a transcription of reality’, but that they are carefully structured and arranged images that encourage contemplation from their viewers (H.D. Gergory, ‘A Repast to Savor: Narrative and Meaning in Pieter Claesz’s Still Life’, Pieter Claesz: Master of Haarlem Still Life, P. Biseboer and M. Brunner-Bulst, eds., exhibition catalogue, Haarlem, Zurich and Washington, 2005, p. 99). Many of the items in Claesz’s paintings were costly luxury objects. Lemons and olives, for example, were imported from the Mediterranean and likely were only available to people of the social strata from which Claesz drew his patrons. Others contained a clear moralizing message. The overturned tazza, for example, could be seen as an admonishment against excess, while the oysters, regarded as an aphrodisiac, are relegated to the dark recesses of the composition.
Pieter Claesz was born in the Flemish town of Berchem and began his career as a painter in Antwerp, joining the city’s Guild of Saint Luke in 1620. In the same year, however, Claesz moved to Haarlem. The city had become popular with emigrees from Flanders in the early seventeenth century, attracted by the region’s growing prosperity and economic expansion under the Twelve Years Truce, which had begun in 1609. Though little is known about Claesz’s career before he arrived in the city, it is likely that the artist was familiar with the work of Flemish still life painters like Osias Beert and Clara Peeters. His assimilation of their use of color and composition with the native pictorial traditions of Haarlem rapidly established him as a leading still life painter in the city. Claesz introduced a heightened degree of realism to the Haarlem still life school. Instead of adopting the high viewpoint and wider variety of colors which were favored by an earlier generation of Haarlem still life painters like Floris van Dijck and Floris van Schooten, Claesz’s paintings employ a low viewpoint, their compositions unified through subtle color schemes comprised mostly of earth tones.
Despite its deceivingly simple composition, the painting was likely intended to draw out far more learned references from the knowledgeable viewer. Claesz’s still lifes must be viewed ‘with the understanding that they are not a transcription of reality’, but that they are carefully structured and arranged images that encourage contemplation from their viewers (H.D. Gergory, ‘A Repast to Savor: Narrative and Meaning in Pieter Claesz’s Still Life’, Pieter Claesz: Master of Haarlem Still Life, P. Biseboer and M. Brunner-Bulst, eds., exhibition catalogue, Haarlem, Zurich and Washington, 2005, p. 99). Many of the items in Claesz’s paintings were costly luxury objects. Lemons and olives, for example, were imported from the Mediterranean and likely were only available to people of the social strata from which Claesz drew his patrons. Others contained a clear moralizing message. The overturned tazza, for example, could be seen as an admonishment against excess, while the oysters, regarded as an aphrodisiac, are relegated to the dark recesses of the composition.