Willem Claesz. Heda

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Mak van Waay, 18 November 1924, lot 18;
S.F. van Oss, The Hague;
With D. Katz, Dieren;
Sidney J. van den Bergh, Wassenaer, 1955;
By whom sold London, Sotheby's, 11 March 1964, lot 62, for £2,800 to Warden;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman') London, Christie's, 7 July 1972, lot 88, for 8,500 Guineas to De Boer;
Anonymous sale, London, Phillips, 18 April 1989, lot 59;
With Heide Hübner, Würzburg, for whom acquired by
Dr. Hinrich Bischoff, by 1993;
Anonymous sale, Bremen, Bolland & Marotz, 2007; 
With Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam, 2007, from whom acquired by the present owner.

Rome, Galleria Borghese, Capolavori della Pittura Olandese, 1928, no. 48;
Vic sur Seille, Musée Départemental Georges de la Tour, Un Cabinet Imaginaire, Natures Mortes et Vanités du XVIIème Siècle, 10 May - 4 September 2005, unnumbered.

N.R.A. Vroom, De Schilders van het Monochrome Banketje, Amsterdam 1945, pp. 79-80, 212, no. 198, reproduced fig. 24;
N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message as Intimated by the Painters of the "Monochrome Banketje", Schiedman 1980, vol. 2, p., 74, no. 361, reproduced;
S. Rütten, in E. Mai (ed.), Das Kabinett des Sammlers, Cologne 1993, pp. 131-33, no. 51, reproduced;
G. Diss & L. Turnherr, Cabinet Imaginaire, Natures Mortes et Vanités du XVIIème Siècle, exhibition catalogue, Bremen 2005, p. 24, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a perfectly flat large oak panel with one central joint. There is no sign of movement, past or present, and the joint has minimal retouching. The recent restoration has given some parts of the background multiple little strengthening touches, while the still life itself remains largely very finely preserved. The white cloth in particular has been quite intensively if discreetly reinforced, as have some darker areas in the background, with only a few scattered touches across the central lighter background. The pewter jug and dishes are magnificently intact, as are many other fine details throughout the still life, with small strengthening touches in the glass. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Along with his townsman Pieter Claesz., Willem Claesz. Heda was the foremost painter of the so-called monochrome breakfast-piece, or banketje, that was popularised, notably in Haarlem, in the 17th century. His year of birth is unknown but a Haarlem document of 1627 testifies his age as 'around' thirty-one, thus pointing to a birth date circa 1596. His earliest dated monochrome breakfast-piece is from 1629 and from this date on he painted little else.¹  His name appears in the Haarlem guild records for the first time in 1631, the same year he admitted the first pupils to his workshop, which were to include his son Gerret and Maarten Boelema de Stomme.

Termed by Vroom as Monochrome Banketjes on account of their controlled use of subdued colour, these works are characterised, without exception, by a group of still life elements, including silver, pewter and glass objects, together with foodstuffs such as bread rolls and hams, usually arranged on a partly draped table-top. By concentrating on a limited repertoire of objects seen under subdued, diffused lighting and with a neutral background, Heda and his peers were able to refine this genre of still life painting to the extent that it would become the dominant style in and around Haarlem for several decades.

This picture is a superb exercise in this genre, and was painted during Heda's best period. A comparable picture, dated one year later, was included in the exhibition Still-Life Paintings from Netherlands 1550-1720 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, and Cleveland, Musem of Art, reproduced in colour). It includes many of the same elements: the pewter Kanne, the silver beaker (but upright), the earthenware pot, silver and pewter platters, and a ham; all informally arranged on a table draped with a white cloth over a green one.

Until 1989 the date was wrongly read as 1639.

1. The 1629 panel is in The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. no. 596; see H.R. Hoetink (ed.), The Royal Picture Gallery. Mauritshuis, New York/ The Hague 1985, pp. 198-99, no. 40, reproduced.