Lot 154: CLARA PEETERS

CLARA PEETERS ACTIVE, PROBABLY IN ANTWERP, 1607 - IN OR AFTER 1621 STILL LIFE OF A GAME AND A BASKET OF GRAPES WITH A SQUIRREL AND GOLDFINCH signed on ledge lower left: CLARA. P oil on panel 20 by 29 3/8 in.; 50.8 by 74.6 cm.

With Galerie de Jonkheere, Paris;
From whom acquired by the present owner in 1998.

Relatively little is known about the life and career of Clara Peeters. She is not recorded in the Antwerp guild -- even though women had begun to be admitted to its ranks as early as 1602 -- and her early training has remained obscure. Only around 50 works by her hand are known, the earliest of which is signed and dated 1608. She seems to have specialized in "breakfast" or "banquet" pieces, sumptuous still lifes of food stuffs that she sometimes grouped thematically or categorically; see her Cheesestack paintings, for example (P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters, Lingen 1992, pp. 36, 37, 43).

The present work juxtaposes the waxy, supple texture of the grapes in their woven basket to the soft, downy feathers of the duck and other game birds displayed on the table. The overall feeling is of abundance and plenty. The squirrel in the upper right hand portion of the composition reappears in a still life given to the Circle of Clara Peeters, depicting fruit and flowers in the Pitti Palace, Florence (Decoteau, p. 56).