Willem Kalf. Willem Kalf was one of the most prominent Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age.
We first get acquainted with Willem Kalf through Arnold Houbraken, in his Groot Schilderboek, who speaks very highly of him. In fact, Kalf was a highly regarded and celebrated artist during his own lifetime.
This was due to his extensive art knowledge and what we gain from Houbraken, his affable personality. His claim to fame now rests mostly on his mature still lifes, pronkstilleven in Dutch, which feature the most exotic and luxurious objects.
This can be seen in for example, Still life with nautilus beaker and porcelain lidded bowl from 1662, which became an iconic piece of western art. There is little known about Willem Kalf's life, for there is minimal documentation on Kalf himself.
What is known is mainly derived from archival research, documents, and other sources which link him to specific times, places, and people, but there are no direct writings on him, except Houbraken and a small piece by Gerard de Lairesse. Willem Kalf was born in Rotterdam in a house at the Hoogstraat, in 1619. He was baptized the same year in the church of Saint Lawrence. He was the son of Machtelt Gerrits and Jan Jansz. Kalf, a wealthy cloth merchant and member of the Rotterdam council who, just before he died in 1625, got caught in a scandal. Willem Kalf was only six years old at the
We first get acquainted with Willem Kalf through Arnold Houbraken, in his Groot Schilderboek, who speaks very highly of him. In fact, Kalf was a highly regarded and celebrated artist during his own lifetime.
This was due to his extensive art knowledge and what we gain from Houbraken, his affable personality. His claim to fame now rests mostly on his mature still lifes, pronkstilleven in Dutch, which feature the most exotic and luxurious objects.
This can be seen in for example, Still life with nautilus beaker and porcelain lidded bowl from 1662, which became an iconic piece of western art. There is little known about Willem Kalf's life, for there is minimal documentation on Kalf himself.
What is known is mainly derived from archival research, documents, and other sources which link him to specific times, places, and people, but there are no direct writings on him, except Houbraken and a small piece by Gerard de Lairesse. Willem Kalf was born in Rotterdam in a house at the Hoogstraat, in 1619. He was baptized the same year in the church of Saint Lawrence. He was the son of Machtelt Gerrits and Jan Jansz. Kalf, a wealthy cloth merchant and member of the Rotterdam council who, just before he died in 1625, got caught in a scandal. Willem Kalf was only six years old at the
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