HARMEN STEENWIJCK (LEIDEN C.1612-1656 DELFT)

Harmen Steenwijck belonged to a family of painters, including his uncle David Bailly, with whom he and his brother, Pieter Steenwijck, trained in Leiden. Bailly was a key proponent of the vanitas genre, for which Harmen also became particularly well-known.

The present composition is made up of Steenwijck’s characteristic motifs of game, fish, earthenware jugs and fruit, enabling the artist to play with the contrasting textures of scales, leather, fur and wood. Generally known for working on a small scale, this is one of the largest works Steenwijck completed, probably during the last decade of his life in the 1650s when his handling of paint became somewhat looser.

We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs, and for dating the painting to circa 1650.