Lot 32: A roemer of wine, a pewter platter with a bread roll, a bowl of raspberries, a joint of ham, peaches and grapes on a partly-draped table

Cornelis Kruys (Brendt 1605-1654 Schiedam 1654)
A roemer of wine, a pewter platter with a bread roll, a bowl of raspberries, a joint of ham, peaches and grapes on a partly-draped table
signed 'C.Cruÿs' (lower right)
oil on panel
23 x 29 in. (58.5 x 73.8 cm.)

We are grateful to Mr Fred Meijer of the RKD, for suggesting a date of c. 1650 on the basis of photographs.

Kruys's work was relatively unknown until the mid-20th Century owing to an inventory of 1668 noting him only as a still life painter of flowers. His work was often misattributed to the more famous Haarlem artists such as Willem Claesz. Heda and Pieter Claesz., whose influence is clearly notable in Kruys's work. He entered the Guild of St. Luke in Haarlem in 1644, and in 1649 became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Leiden. He moved to Schiedam in 1651, where he died in 1654.