Lot 1570 Dα

The son of the famous still life painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684), Cornelis de Heem was born in Leiden in 1631. Cornelis received his first training as a painter in his father's studio in Antwerp. Even his earliest works, also still lifes, are of outstanding quality. In 1660 the St. Luke's Guild of Antwerp accepted Cornelis de Heem as an independent painter. However, he did not remain in Antwerp permanently. From 1667 to at least 1684 he stayed in Utrecht and The Hague. Now an independent painter, Cornelis de Heem had to orientate himself more towards the market.
His main focus was on still lifes of fruit, sometimes supplemented by flowers and sometimes with various foods, such as lobsters, oysters and tableware. His paintings, which also include garlands, festoons and bouquets with flowers and fruits, always show a bright colour palette, which is brighter in the early work than in later works. Cornelis de Heem succeeded in realising details with astonishingly light, painterly open brushstroke, which solidified from the 1670s.