Thursday, September 13, 2007

ode to Dutch Still-life



Also for my birthday, I received two books on Dutch Still-life:

Still Life and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age
By: Julie Berger Hochstrasser
&
Pieter Claesz 1596/97 - 1660
By: Pieter Biesboer (Author)

Pieter Claesz has always been my favorite of the Dutch still-life artists. The second book I listed there which is titled simply Pieter Claesz 1596/97-1660, features a very nice grouping of his work that was recently shown together at the Washington National Gallery of Art. Although not much is known about Pieter Claesz himself, (they don't even have a record of his birth) being able to look at so many pieces of his, along with the dates he did them, shows how remarkable he was as an artist. If I could be as good at the end of my career as his work was in his early twenties, I would be a happy person.

This still-life has taken some cues from his work: the overall shape of the grouping of objects, the cup which tilts on the edge of the tray, the platter hanging off the edge etc etc. It was loads of fun to try & I may be doing more!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to see you doing old master still life's too! Don't you just love that moody palette?:)

visioneerwindows said...

regarding dutch trade and art, you might find Tyler Cowen's In Praise of Commercial Culture of informative interest....

Anonymous said...

I swear, Nicole! You are like Superwoman! I just love the baroque silverware you have been using, and I especially like this latest one with the warm colors and the interesting composition.

Unknown said...

Thanks Ranjini!

Thanks for the book suggestion visioneer!

Thanks Deb!! You know I almost got rid of that silverware set at a garage sale! They're not so practical to eat with!

sandy said...

This is so beautiful as is all your work. I first saw your art at Wet Canvas.