Willem Kalf (1619-1693)Willem Kalf was the son of a successful cloth merchant of Rotterdam. Following his mother's death, he moved to Paris from 1641 to 1646, painting small kitchen still lifes and courtyard scenes with calabashes, pots and pans on the floor. In 1651 Kalf married the poet Cornelia Pulver in Hoorn. They settled in Amsterdam where Kalf produced his best-known work - his still lifes of gleaming römersRömerA römer is a glass with a round bowl and a wide, hollow stem with prunts. These prunts differ from glass to glass: often they are designed to form a raspberry motif or they may be drawn out to form pointed prunts. These decorative motifs were probably intended to serve a practical purpose as well: to stop the glass slipping through loose fingers. The term 'römer' appears to stem from the German word for Roman: 'Römer'. and Venetian glass, porcelain dishes and goblets. Many of his compositions are found in two or three versions. If a particular design proved successful, it would be copied by the painter or a pupil at his studio. After 1680, Kalf appears to have concentrated on buying and selling art and to have stopped painting. |
