About the Artist

Among Dutch still-life painters, Willem Claesz. Heda (1594 Jaare, - c. 1681 Haarlem) is - together with Pieter Claesz. - One of the outstanding exponents of the monochrome banketje. These still lifes of breakfast and dessert are characterized by a color palette reduced to grays and tones of gray, and the concentration on a few familiarly represented foods and drinks served on fine tableware. Nothing is known of the artist's education, but it is presumed that Heda spent his entire life in Haarlem. His name appears for the first time in 1631 in the documents of the St. Luke's Guild in Haarlem of which he served several times as dean beginning in 1637. He maintained a large studio that supported numerous pupils and co-artists, whose works are not always clearly distinguishable from each other. Among the artists works are Still Life with Herring, 1629, Mauritshuis, The Hague; Breakfast Table with a Blackberry Tart, 1631, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, and Still Life with a Nautilus Trophy, 1654, Magyar Nemzeti Museum, Budapest.