Abraham van Beijeren

Ostentatious still life with self-portrait of the artist in the silver jug

Abraham Hendriksz van BeijerenorAbraham van Beyeren(c. 1620,The Hague– March 1690,Overschie(Rotterdam)) was aDutchBaroquepainterof still lifes. Little recognized in his day and initially active as a marine painter, he is now considered one of the most important painters ofstill lifes,andstill lifesof fish and so-called 'pronkstillevens', i.e. sumptuous still lifes of luxurious objects.

Life

Abraham van Beijeren trained withTyman Arentsz. Crachtin 1636.He lived inLeidenin 1638-1639 where in 1639 he married Emmerentia Stercke. He was back in The Hague in 1640 where he became a master of the localGuild of Saint Luke.

River view

After the death of his first wife he was left to raise three daughters. He married with Anna van den Queborn in 1647. His second wife was a painter and daughter of the painterCrispijn van den Queborn.Anna's aunt was married toPieter de Putter,a painter of fish still lifes. De Putter may have been the source of van Beijeren's initial interest in the genre of fish still lifes as well as his tutor in this genre.

Still Life with Haddocks and Plaice

Van Beijeren's initial works were marine and fish still life paintings. These were not very well paid at the time and the relative poverty of van Beijeren may explain his frequent moves from one place to another. He resided inDelftfrom 1657 where he joined the local Guild of Saint Luke. In 1663 he returned to The Hague where he remained until 1669 when he moved toAmsterdam.Further moves followed: toAlkmaarin 1669, thenGoudain 1675 and finally Overschie (Rotterdam) in 1677. This was his last home.

The artist may have been doing better financially in his later years as he was able to buy a house in Overschie for 1,000 guilders of which 600 was covered by a mortgage.His wife was reported as being sick in bed in 1679 when she made her will. The date of her death is unknown.Van Beijeren died in Overschie in 1690.

Work

Van Beijeren signed his canvases with the monogram AVB and invariably failed to include a date. As a result, it has been difficult to compile a precise chronology of his works.

Still-Life with Landscape,1650s

While in the 1640s most of his paintings were seascapes, van Beijeren began to develop as a skilled still life painter offish.In his early marine paintings he shows the influence ofJan van Goyen.

In the 1650s and 1660s he started to focus onpronkstillevens,i.e. still lifes with fine silverware, Chinese porcelain, glass and selections of fruit. He also painted a number offloralstill life paintings, dead bird paintings andvanitaspaintings. The move to painting pronkstillevens may have been motivated by economic necessity as they could be sold to a wealthier clientele. These still lifes are often quite elaborate displays and show the influence ofJan Davidsz. de Heem.

He generally used a fairly broad technique and brown tonalities with some precision of detail. Van Beijeren was likely familiar with the other Dutch painters of pronkstillevens such asPieter ClaeszandWillem Claeszoon Hedawho were specialists in monochrome banquet still lives. He often worked on a larger scale than his Dutch contemporaries with his tall canvasses reaching a height of one meter.

Collections

Banquet still life

TheScottish National Gallery,theAcademy of Fine Arts Vienna,theAshmolean Museum(University of Oxford), theIris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts(Stanford University, California), theCleveland Museum of Art,theDallas Museum of Art,theDetroit Institute of Arts,Museum de Fundatie,theHonolulu Museum of Art,theLos Angeles County Museum of Art,theLouvre,theMetropolitan Museum of Art,theMinneapolis Institute of Arts,theNational Maritime Museum(Greenwich, UK), theYork Art Gallery,York,UK; thePhiladelphia Museum of Art,theRijksmuseum Amsterdam,theRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium,theRhode Island School of Design Museum,theRoyal CastleinWarsawand theSeattle Art Museumare some of the public collections that hold paintings by Abraham van Beyeren.In private collections: Ger Eenens Collection the Netherlands.

Further reading

• Bergström, Ingvar, "Dutch Still Life Painting in the Seventeenth Century", New York: T. Yoseloff, 1956.

External links

• Media related toAbraham van Beijerenat Wikimedia Commons
• Vermeer and The Delft School,a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Abraham van Beijeren