Willem Kalf

Bodegon with silver jug (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).

Willem Kalf (Rotterdam, 1619-Amsterdam, 1693) was a Dutch painter who excelled in still life painting, a genre of which he is a great master.

Trajectory

Her biography is mired in questions. Born in Rotterdam into a wealthy family, his father was a textile merchant. There is little news about his artistic training. It was believed that he had been a disciple of Hendrik Gerritsz. Pot, in Haarlem, which is currently ruled out. In 1642 he was quoted in Paris, in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, a meeting place for Flemish artists, where he mainly produced large-scale still lifes and some small scenes of everyday themes in interiors, with which he had much success and came to command high prices in France.

In the 18th century, artists such as Jean Siméon Chardin and François Boucher bought his works, and sometimes reworked them. At the same time, during his stay in Paris he devoted himself to the creation of "sumptuous" still lifes; (Pronkstilleven), representing pieces of silver, porcelain, glass and precious oriental rugs (Willem was undoubtedly familiar with the works of Jan Davidsz. de Heem in Amsterdam). This new pictorial genre, little known in France, became increasingly popular and Kalf's fame grew enormously, to the point that many artists made copies of his paintings.

Still Life with a Porcelain Vase, Silver-gilt Ewer, and Glasses LACMA

After the great successes achieved in France, in October 1646 Kalf decided to return to Holland. He went first to Rotterdam and then to Hoorn, where in 1651 he married Cornelia Pluvier, an engraver and poetess, who bore him four children. From the time of his return home we know nothing of his artistic activity until 1653, when he settled in Amsterdam, a city filled with painters, art dealers, and wealthy patrons. In this city, Kalf resumed his work. His paintings become smaller and a progressive improvement in pictorial quality is noted. His compositions are increasingly intimate and the amount of light less intense. His artistic activity is believed to have ended after 1680 (last work dated), but he was engaged in the art trade until the last day of his life.Little is known of his private life. He was not the owner of the houses in which he lived and there is no news of legacies. He probably did not work very much and had no ambition for wealth. On July 31, 1693, at the age of 74, he tripped and fell near his home. He dragged himself home from him painfully and went to bed where he died.

Lord of Light

Its production is relatively scarce. Among his most notable works are: Interior of a kitchen (Louvre Museum in Paris), Still life with a silver pitcher (Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam), Still life with Nautilus Cup (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and Chinese Porcelain Vase at the Indianapolis Museum.

Despite high praise and notoriety during his lifetime, during which he was highly praised by his contemporaries (including Gérard de Lairesse), in the 19th century his works fell into oblivion. But after the restoration of many of his paintings, he returned to the spotlight in the following century, so much so that he was recognized as one of the greatest still-life artists of his day. In 2007, the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam gave him the recognition he deserved with the exhibition of forty-one of his best works, in the halls of the Suermondt Museum in Aachen.

He reached the peak of his artistic production from 1660, when he showed that he was not only a very expert artist in the play of shadows and light reflections, but also that he had absolute confidence in the use of color, as can be seen in his Still Life with a Drinking Horn exhibited at the National Gallery, London. If Jan de Heem can be considered a more complete artist, one must recognize in Kalf an extraordinary ability to create light effects, such as a great illusionist of the brush.