Clara Peeters (1594-1657)

An important pioneer in the field of still-life painting, Clara Peeters is the only known Flemish woman to specialize in this form during the early Baroque period. Peeters was baptized in Antwerp in 1594 and married there in 1639. Peeters' earliest dated oils, from 1607 and 1608, are small-scale, detailed images representing food and beverages. The skill with which this 14-year-old artist executed such pictures indicates that she was probably trained by a master who may have been Osias Beert, a noted still-life painter from Antwerp. By 1612 the 18-year-old artist was producing large numbers of painstakingly rendered still lifes, typically displaying a group of valuable objects (elaborately decorated metal goblets, gold coins, exotic flowers) on a narrow ledge, as seen from a low vantage point, against a dark background. - Malaspina Biography

Books from Alibris: Clara Peeters