Still life with pitcher, tazza, ham and carnation. Pieter Claesz workshop

Oil on reinforced panel. Mid-17th century Dutch school, workshop of Pieter Claesz (1596/98 - 1661).
Our composition belongs to a genre brought to its peak by Pieter Claesz: the monochrome still life. In an apparent disorder, where food and silverware are laid haphazardly on an entablature, the painter invites the viewer to feast, the profusion of objects evoking abundance. Faithful to Claesz's art, our painting has a great harmony that finds its balance through skilfully measured weights of light and shadow. Like a goldsmith, he chisels an upside-down silver tazza, and like a pewter potter, he unfurls tableware that plays with the day. Our work, whose color palette is concentrated in shades of brown, ochre and gray, is far removed from the opulent, extraverted art of Flanders, and invites introspection. Here, a tazza is upside down, there a knife and a pewter dish are balanced. Ready to fall, they remind us of the fragility of life.
The development of still life as a genre in its own right is closely linked to the history of the Netherlands. In contrast to Catholic Flanders under Spanish rule, the Calvinist Northern United Provinces enjoyed great economic prosperity thanks to their autonomy and their merchants. Haarlem is a prime example of a sanctuary city where people from Flanders and Antwerp settled in search of freedom. Haarlem was not only the home of Frans Hals, but also the center of Mannerist painting in Holland, with several masters specializing in the still-life genre, led by Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda.

As is de rigueur for Dutch Golden Age paintings, our still life is presented in a powerful blackened wood frame with an inverted profile.
Dimensions: 64 x 88 cm panel - 90 x 114 cm with frame.
Related work: The arrangement of the objects in the space, the format and the chromatic range are reminiscent of the painting held in a private collection and presented at the Zürich exhibition in 2004: “Entablature au pichet à large panse, au gobelet d'argent renversé, roemer, verre cannelé et chapon rôti” dated 1647.

Biography: Pieter Claesz (Berchem 1596/98 - Haarlem 1661) settled in Haarlem before 1617, where he worked until his death. Along with Willem Claesz Heda, he was the master of the Haarlem still-life school with its “monochromist” tendency. His early works, executed between 1621 and 1630 (Still Life, 1624, Rijksmuseum; Vanitas, 1624, Dresden Gemälde Galerie or Still Life with Musical Instruments, 1625, Musée du Louvre) show a certain closeness to the art of Floris Van Dyck or Nicolaes Gillis, with a slightly plunging viewpoint and fairly strong colors. His truly “monochrome” period spans around ten years, from 1630 to 1640. And one of the best examples is his Still Life of Breakfast, painted in 1636 (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam), which is more concentrated and coherent, where the objects are more closely linked and the general muted tonality is organized around a range of gray-browns. Through the refinement and intimacy of his compositions, Pieter Claesz paved the way for a new conception of the still life. Pieter Claesz is the father of landscape painter Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem.

Bibliography :
- BRUNNER-BULST, Martina, Pieter Claesz, 2004, Luca ;
- BIESBOER Pieter, BRUNNER-BULST Martina, GREGORY Henry D, KLEMM Christian, Pieter Claesz Master of Haarlem Still Life, 2004, Belser;
- MEIJER, Fred G., The Ashmolean Museum Oxford. Catalog of the Collection of Paintings, The Collection of Dutch and Flamish Still life Paintings Bequeathed by Daisy linda Ward, 2003, Zwolle;
- GRIMM, Claus, Natures mortes flamandes, hollandaises et allemandes, 1988, Herscher;
- GREINDL, Edith, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, 1983, Michel Lefebvre Editions d'Art