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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Mr. Fred Meijer of the RKD for confirming the attribution, after examining the picture in the original; he notes that the painting is 'a fully characteristic work by Heda for the first half of the 1640s, in type, handling and quality' (e-mail, 4 February 2002).
Along with his contemporary, Pieter Claesz., the painter Willem Claesz. Heda was the originator of a type of painting often referred to as the monochrome 'banketje' or breakfast still life (the word monochrome referring in fact to the range of tones rather than colours), that inspired a whole school of painting in mid-seventeenth-century Haarlem. Heda seems to have been reasonably affluent, and his work was much in demand during his lifetime; Rubens owned two paintings by him, and copies after Heda appear in other Antwerp inventories. Jan de Bray painted his portrait in 1678 (untraced).
A meticulous and careful painter from his youth, Heda's simply constructed compositions from the 1620s and 1630s, composed around a linear frame, developed in the 1640s into a more abundant style in which he arranged his objects in a seemingly casual way. In fact, these highly ordered 'bankejtes' are beautifully balanced, showcasing the artist's skill in creating relationships among everyday objects. In the present work, for example, the composition is based around two diagonals, running from the upper and lower right corners converging at the centre left edge; within this are arranged a variety of different forms and textures, balanced between horizontal and vertical accents and worked up in a range of greys, olive-greens and browns.
Devices such as the plate overhanging the table edge, the lemon peel spiralling down the front and the overlapping plates - recurrent features of Heda's work from the mid-1630s - act to increase the sense of depth within the composition, a sense enhanced by the diagonals of the knife and bone. Many of these elements are designed not only to keep the eye moving across the picture, but also to display the artist's technical virtuosity. Particularly pertinent to this latter aspect of the work are the reflections scattered through the composition - a favourite trick of Heda's - notably on the platter of ham, the roemer and especially the mustard pot.
From circa 1645, Heda's taste changed towards the inclusion of a more abundant grouping of boldly decorated objects, designed easily to catch the eye of the viewer. Although these later works are often visual tours de force, it is the restrained beauty of his earlier works that is often taken as representing the zenith of Heda's oeuvre. The present work, described by Vroom as 'monumental', is a fine example of this latter style; its success may be judged from the fact that there are two known replicas, listed by Vroom (op. cit.) as his nos. 369b (published as Richard Green collection, London, attributed to Gerret Heda) and c (formerly with Douwes, Amsterdam), which he describes as being 'exceptionally beautiful' in their own right.
Along with his contemporary, Pieter Claesz., the painter Willem Claesz. Heda was the originator of a type of painting often referred to as the monochrome 'banketje' or breakfast still life (the word monochrome referring in fact to the range of tones rather than colours), that inspired a whole school of painting in mid-seventeenth-century Haarlem. Heda seems to have been reasonably affluent, and his work was much in demand during his lifetime; Rubens owned two paintings by him, and copies after Heda appear in other Antwerp inventories. Jan de Bray painted his portrait in 1678 (untraced).
A meticulous and careful painter from his youth, Heda's simply constructed compositions from the 1620s and 1630s, composed around a linear frame, developed in the 1640s into a more abundant style in which he arranged his objects in a seemingly casual way. In fact, these highly ordered 'bankejtes' are beautifully balanced, showcasing the artist's skill in creating relationships among everyday objects. In the present work, for example, the composition is based around two diagonals, running from the upper and lower right corners converging at the centre left edge; within this are arranged a variety of different forms and textures, balanced between horizontal and vertical accents and worked up in a range of greys, olive-greens and browns.
Devices such as the plate overhanging the table edge, the lemon peel spiralling down the front and the overlapping plates - recurrent features of Heda's work from the mid-1630s - act to increase the sense of depth within the composition, a sense enhanced by the diagonals of the knife and bone. Many of these elements are designed not only to keep the eye moving across the picture, but also to display the artist's technical virtuosity. Particularly pertinent to this latter aspect of the work are the reflections scattered through the composition - a favourite trick of Heda's - notably on the platter of ham, the roemer and especially the mustard pot.
From circa 1645, Heda's taste changed towards the inclusion of a more abundant grouping of boldly decorated objects, designed easily to catch the eye of the viewer. Although these later works are often visual tours de force, it is the restrained beauty of his earlier works that is often taken as representing the zenith of Heda's oeuvre. The present work, described by Vroom as 'monumental', is a fine example of this latter style; its success may be judged from the fact that there are two known replicas, listed by Vroom (op. cit.) as his nos. 369b (published as Richard Green collection, London, attributed to Gerret Heda) and c (formerly with Douwes, Amsterdam), which he describes as being 'exceptionally beautiful' in their own right.