Grapes and pears in a woven basket, with pears, peaches, apricots and a plum on a stone ledge, with a fly on the stone wall

Although Claes van Heussen, a native of Haarlem, was sufficiently well-known in his own day to be mentioned in Samuel Ampzing’s History of Haarlem published in 1628, very few works by him are known. Particularly prominent among them is the Fruit and vegetable seller, also signed and dated 1630, which is a collaborative work with Frans Hals (included in the Frans Hals exhibition, Washington, London and Haarlem, 1989-90; private collection, England). The fact that only van Heussen’s signature appears on that work is an indication of the particularly high esteem with which his work was held by contemporaries.