A selection of luxury objects is displayed on a wooden tabletop, draped with a green cloth and a crumpled white napkin. Occupying pride of place, on a wide pewter platter is a joint of ham on the bone. Behind it appears a wicker basket, overflowing with mouth-watering fruits, including a melon, a lemon, bunches of purple and green grapes, some apricots and branch of vivid red cherries. To the left, stand a porcelain jug and two delicate drinking glasses, each containing a small quantity of wine. A prawn, a bread roll, a bunch of grapes and a pewter plate, bearing a partly peeled lemon, complete the sumptuous spread. An over-arching stem of vine leaves and tendrils adds a decorative flourish.

This painting is a characteristic example of the still lifes of Laurens Craen, a little-known master who was active in Middelburg from around 1649. His small oeuvre consists of fruit pieces and larger, more ambitious banquet pieces depicting fine foodstuffs and tableware, situated near the corner of a table. In these banquets, his choice of items invariably includes abundant displays of fruit, together with a joint of meat, or a lobster, crab or oysters and a few pieces of fine porcelain and glassware. His personal style is easily recognisable. Typical features are a soft, clear light that falls obliquely from the upper left, a strong sense of plasticity and a certain bright, blond colouring. The backgrounds to Craen’s still lifes can vary: often, as seen here, he employs a backdrop of two walls that meet in a corner and occasionally he places his arrangements before a window with a view of a landscape, or contains them within a stone niche. The stem of vine leaves that crowns so many of his compositions is virtually a signature motif.

Craen’s main source of inspiration was the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, in particular the still lifes he introduced in Antwerp in the mid-1640s. In view of Craen’s strong dependence on de Heem, it seems likely that he was a pupil in the master’s Antwerp studio around that time. De Heem had worked in Utrecht and Leiden before settling in Antwerp in the 1630s. According to Joachim von Sandrart, the artist’s motivation for moving to Antwerp was to profit from the great variety of exotic fruits available in the cityⁱ, but he was no doubt also attracted by the presence there of three important still-life painters: Frans Synders, Adriaen van Utrecht and Daniel Seghers. In the years that followed, de Heem created a style of still life painting that is a synthesis of the large, colourful and exuberant Flemish style and the relatively simple, sober and intimate paintings more typical of the northern Netherlands. His flower pieces and pronk still lives had an immediate impact on Netherlandish still life painters, both south and north of the border. A good example of the type of still life that might have served as a model for Laurens Craen’s compositions is de Heem’s Still Life of Fruit and Ham of 1646 in the Toledo Museum of Artⁱⁱ , which depicts a table on which a selection of precious objects and comestibles are arrayed.

This light and colourful composition displays all the qualities associated with Craen’s best work. A blond, sunny light envelopes the objects and is captured in the glowing contents of the drinking vessels, or is reflected in the metallic surfaces of the pewter platters. A harmonious palette of warm greens and yellows predominates, with accents of pink, orange and luscious red. The handling of paint is soft and flowing and perfectly describes the various textures of the objects - from the misty bloom on the grapes to the downy skin of apricots and the nubble of lemon peel – the latter painted in thick impasto in such a way that it mimics the real thing. Also masterly is the description of the cut surface of the ham, with the glistening white fat and the marks left by the blade of a knife.

The present painting can be dated to around 1649 by comparison with the few known dated examples of the artist’s work. The form of signature concurs with this early dating: a calligraphic signature is introduced during the 1650s, with curls that sometimes resemble vine tendrils.

Due to a scarcity of biographical data, it is difficult to reconstruct a clear picture of the life and career of Laurens Craen. Neither his date nor place of birth is known. He is documented as a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Middelburg from 1654 to 1663-64. A letter of October 1649, written by Craen in Middelburg to Constantijn Huygens, secretary to the Prince of Orange, reminding him of the services the painter had offered to the court at The Hague "before his departure for Zeeland” raises the possibility that he came from The Hague. One Pieter Craen, who was a pupil of Jan van Ravesteyn, is recorded in that city in 1623. However, as Fred Meijer has observed "the marked similarity of most of his works to those of Jan Davidsz. de Heem of the mid-1640s smacks strongly of an apprenticeship in that artist’s Antwerp studio around 1645”ⁱⁱⁱ. A Middelburg document of November 1670, stating that a guardian had been appointed to the children of a ‘captain’ Laurens Craen, probably refers to the artist, who had probably died not long before.

P.M.

1. Joachim von Sandrart, L’Academia Tedesca della Architectura, Scultura & Pittura: Oder Teutsche Academie der Edlen Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste… III (Nuremberg, 1675-79, ) pp. 211-376.
2. Jan Davidsz. De Heem, (1606-1683/4), Fruit and Ham on a Table with a View of a City, 1646 (The Toledo Museum of Art)
3. A. van der Willigen and F. Meijer, A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish still-life painters working in oils 1525-1725, 2001, p. 68.