Lot 31: Clara Peeters , Antwerp 1589 (?) - after 1657 Place Unknown a still life with fish in a ceramic colander, oysters, langoustines, mackerel and a cat on the ledge beneath oil on panel

signed lower left: CLARA.P. oil on panel

measurements note 34 by 48 cm.; 13 3/8 by 18 7/8 in.

P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters, Lingen 1992, p 181, reproduced p. 39, fig. 26, where listed as location unknown.

H.B., Leipzig;
His sale, Hecht, Berlin, 27 February 1928, lot 118;
D.A. Hoogendijk, Amsterdam, 1932;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 6 May 1996, lot 9, for £52,801.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
This is one of three paintings by the artist depicting fish in ceramic colanders, all of which are of broadly the same dimensions. Of the other two, one is in Washington D.C., National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the other is in Antwerp, Musée des Beaux-Arts.υ1 All three paintings are dated by Hibbs Decoteau to the 1620s, and of the three, the Washington painting is considered the earliest due to its similarites with Peeters' known works of 1611-12, sharing a similarly high viewpoint to her food paintings of 1612 such as the Herring, Cherries and Artichoke.υ2 The present work and the Antwerp painting share more in common with her work of the 1630s, being taken from a lower viewpoint, compressing the objects so that they overlap. Little is known of Peeters' training due to a scarcity of documentary evidence. Her earliest dated work is from 1608 and the last record of her is from 1657. It is surprising perhaps, given her evident mastery of the genre of still life painting, that her name does not feature in the records of the Antwerp guild, which had already started to admit women by 1602. 1. See Hibbs Decoteau, under Literature, pp. 128-9, fig. 25, & pp. 130-1, fig. 27, respectively.
2. ibid, p. 180, fig. 17, reproduced pp. 30-31.