A roemer, an upturned tazza, grapes, peaches and salmon on pewter platters, olives in a porcelain bowl, and other objects on a partly draped table

Previously attributed to Jacques de Claeuw, who was active in Dordrecht, The Hague and Leiden between 1642 and 1665, this still-life has recently been recognised by Fred Meijer, of the RKD, The Hague, as a work by the Haarlem painter, Adriaen Jansz. Kraen, after first-hand inspection of the picture. Kraen is first recorded in Haarlem in 1637 and a year later is mentioned as a pupil of Jacob de Wet I, whose sister he later married. By 1642 he was one of the masters of the Haarlem guild. Only a few signed and even fewer dated pictures from his hand are known, one being a picture which was with Douwes, Amsterdam, in 1977, dated 1642. Many of Kraen's pictures have been attributed in the past to his Haarlem colleagues Pieter Claesz. and Willem Claesz. Heda, and the works of these painters have many characteristics in common. All three artists obviously specialized in the so-called monochrome banketjes, of which the present picture is a good example.