Clara Peeters

Still Life with Fish, Sea Food and Flowers

c. 1612 - c. 1615

Inscriptions

  • signature, bottom left, on the table edge:CLARA P.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 16 maart 2006
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 3 maart 2007

Conservation

  • H. Kat, 1997: blisters laid and varnish revived

Provenance

…; from the dealer Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, fl. 200, to the museum, 1903; on loan to the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 1999-2000; on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2004-05

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2111

The artist

Biography

Clara Peeters (active Antwerp 1607 - died after 1634)

There are no certain, documented facts about the life of the still-life painter, Clara Peeters, by whom there are some thirty variously signed paintings.1P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 178-82. Individual works are dated from 1607 to 1621; the signed works form a stylistically coherent whole, but for that of 1621 which exceptionally is a Virgin and Child in a Garland.2P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, (ill.) 19, p. 33.

Meijer is sceptical about her identification with the Clara Peeters who was baptized in the Sint-Walburgiskerk, Antwerp, on 15 May 1594,3A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 262, note 1, under no. 62, referring to P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 77 and 173, note 3 citing E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 (ed. princ. 1956), p. 37, note 40. and rejects that with the bride married in the same church on 31 May 1639,4P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 7 and 173, note 4 citing E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 (ed. princ. 1956), p. 37, note 42. although the first proposal should not be ruled out entirely (see below). He believes that Peeters may have ceased working soon after 1621, as her extant work shows no apparent knowledge of still-life fashions after circa 1620, nor do the objects she delineated suggest a manufacture later than this time.5A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 261.

Peeters never enrolled in the Antwerp guild of St Luke, but she may well have been active in the city as six of her paintings are on supports made by Antwerp panel makers;6Two supports were made by Lambrecht Steens active from 1608-died 1638, A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 262, note 4, referring to P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, (ill). 37 and (ill.) p. 133; another support on copper was made by Pieter Staes (J. Wadum, ‘Pieter Stas: An Antwerp Coppersmith and his Marks’, in Painting Techniques: History, Materials and Studio Practice, Contributions to the IIC 17th International Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, pp. 140-44), whose mark in use between 1606-09, was on the reverse of the signed still life offered in Amsterdam (Christie’s), 9 May 2001, no. 97. Meijer produces further evidence of her being active there in her influence on the work of Nicolaes Cave, a resident of Antwerp and active from 1619 until 1651.7A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 262, note 262; Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 405. See also A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, esp. p. 4, no. 4, and p. 45. Vergara dates a document to 1634 which refers to Clara Pieters of Antwerp.8A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, esp. p. 4, n. 3, and p. 45.

In spite of her great competence and originality, she may not have painted professionally as only one of her paintings is listed in published inventories of seventeenth-century Antwerp collections and none is listed in any published auction sale catalogue in the Netherlands in the eighteenth century. However, the first reference to her activity is in the inventory of the collection of Herman Safleven II (1609-1685), made in Rotterdam on 5 May 1627, in which among a number of works by southern Netherlandish artists was ‘The Fishes after Clara Peeters’ (De Viskens naer Clara Peeters).9F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, V, p. 117.

A Portrait of a Woman with a Vanitas Still Life was recorded in an eighteenth-century handwritten catalogue as by ‘Clara’,10The catalogue was of the collection of John Skippe (1742-1811); see the sale catalogue entry, London (Sotheby’s), 30 November 1966, no. 120; the picture (present whereabouts unknown) was later offered at sale, London (Phillips), 6 December 1994, no. 41. and therefore was presumably signed with the artist’s Christian name; the collar worn suggests a date circa 1610-15, and it may be wondered if the sitter was not in fact the artist herself aged about twenty.11P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, (ill.) 37 and pp. 51-52, rejects the attribution, which is also doubted by Vergara (A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, esp. p. 17), but see A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003 under note 5 above.

REFERENCES
P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, pp. 158-59; A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, passim

Entry

On the terracotta dish are freshwater fish: a carp (perhaps two, only the tail of the (?) second is visible) and a roach with an eel. The shells are from the Far East; on the left, an amphidromus perversus (an Indonesian land snail), behind it, a conus marmoreus, with a mitra mitra and a harpa amouretta, all of which were from the Pacific Ocean.12Information kindly provided by R.G. Moolenbeck, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam to Lieneke Nijkamp 2006, whose substantial draft entry is the basis for that given here. The oysters on the pewter plate are the common European oyster. Behind is a boiled mussel. Shrimps are laid out nearby. The bouquet in the roemer is made up of spring and summer blooms: an anemone, daffodil, daisy, columbine, and violet and strawberry leaves.

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this signed work, which is on a support of a single piece of oak timber from the German/Netherlandish area which would have been ready for use from at least 1586. Noteworthy is the limited use of reserves. It is likely that Clara Peeters improvised after aligning the pewter plate and terracotta dish. The bouquet seems almost an afterthought. The combination of flowers and fish is exceptional. Meijer13Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 225, no. 6. suggests that Peeters here contrasted the scent of flowers with the smell of fish, but it is moot that Peeters would have depicted fish that were already putrid. The conceit of including the signature in the composition itself by painting over it an element of a motif – the antennae of the shrimp – is unusual.

Various dates have been suggested for the painting: Vroom proposed 1608,14N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message: As Intimated by the Painters of the ‘monochrome banketje’, 3 vols., Schiedam 1980-98, II, p. 99, no. 495. Hibbs Decoteau 161115P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 21. and Segal the 1620s.16Segal in M. Meijer et al., Elck zijn waerom. Vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland, 1500-1950, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Arnhem (Museum voor Moderne Kunsten) 1999-2000, p. 143. In view of our lack of knowledge concerning Clara Peeters’s biography and the paucity of dated works (one each of 1607 and (?) 1608, three of 1611, five of 1612 and one of 1621),17P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 178, (ills.) 1-5, p. 179, (ills.) 8, 9, 11, p. 180, (ills.) 16, 17, 19. dating the present work is conjectural. The motif of a carp on a dish was used by Peeters in four other works, one of 1611;18P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. (18), (ill.) 5, p. 181, (ills.) 25, 26, p. 182, (ill.) 27. the head of a shrimp in three other paintings, one of (?) 1608.19P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 178, (ill.) 1, p. 180, (ill.) 20, p. 182, (ill.) 32. A different set of exotic shells appears in still lifes of 1611 and 1612.20P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 178, (ill.) 3, p. 179, (ill.) 9. The similarity of the arrangement of flowers with that in the bouquet of 161221P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 25, 179, (ill.) 8. and the relatively low viewpoint as in the still lifes of comestibles of 161222P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 180, (ills.) 16-17. make a date for the Rijksmuseum picture of circa 1612 seem likely, although Meijer has suggested circa 1615.23Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 225, no. 6. This would have been long after the support of German/Netherlandish oak was available for use.

Gregory Martin, 2022

Literature

P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca.1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 21, 179, (ill.) 7; Segal in M. Meijer et al., Elck zijn waerom. Vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland, 1500-1950, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Arnhem (Museum voor Moderne Kunsten) 1999-2000, p. 143; Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 225, no. 6

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 205 no. 1848; 1934, p. 220, no. 1848; 1976, p. 437, no. A 2111

Citation

G. Martin, 2022, 'Clara Peeters, Still Life with Fish, Sea Food and Flowers, c. 1612 - c. 1615', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5020

(accessed 5 June 2025 19:56:18).

Footnotes

  • 1P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 178-82.
  • 2P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, (ill.) 19, p. 33.
  • 3A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 262, note 1, under no. 62, referring to P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 77 and 173, note 3 citing E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 (ed. princ. 1956), p. 37, note 40.
  • 4P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, pp. 7 and 173, note 4 citing E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek 1983 (ed. princ. 1956), p. 37, note 42.
  • 5A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 261.
  • 6Two supports were made by Lambrecht Steens active from 1608-died 1638, A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 262, note 4, referring to P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, (ill). 37 and (ill.) p. 133; another support on copper was made by Pieter Staes (J. Wadum, ‘Pieter Stas: An Antwerp Coppersmith and his Marks’, in Painting Techniques: History, Materials and Studio Practice, Contributions to the IIC 17th International Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, pp. 140-44), whose mark in use between 1606-09, was on the reverse of the signed still life offered in Amsterdam (Christie’s), 9 May 2001, no. 97.
  • 7A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 262, note 262; Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 405. See also A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, esp. p. 4, no. 4, and p. 45.
  • 8A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, esp. p. 4, n. 3, and p. 45.
  • 9F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, V, p. 117.
  • 10The catalogue was of the collection of John Skippe (1742-1811); see the sale catalogue entry, London (Sotheby’s), 30 November 1966, no. 120; the picture (present whereabouts unknown) was later offered at sale, London (Phillips), 6 December 1994, no. 41.
  • 11P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, (ill.) 37 and pp. 51-52, rejects the attribution, which is also doubted by Vergara (A. Vergara, ‘Reflections of Art and Culture in the Paintings of Clara Peeters’, in A. Vergara (ed.), The Art of Clara Peeters, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/ Madrid (Museo Nacional del Prado) 2016, pp. 13-47, esp. p. 17), but see A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003 under note 5 above.
  • 12Information kindly provided by R.G. Moolenbeck, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam to Lieneke Nijkamp 2006, whose substantial draft entry is the basis for that given here.
  • 13Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 225, no. 6.
  • 14N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message: As Intimated by the Painters of the ‘monochrome banketje’, 3 vols., Schiedam 1980-98, II, p. 99, no. 495.
  • 15P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 21.
  • 16Segal in M. Meijer et al., Elck zijn waerom. Vrouwelijke kunstenaars in België en Nederland, 1500-1950, exh. cat. Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Arnhem (Museum voor Moderne Kunsten) 1999-2000, p. 143.
  • 17P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 178, (ills.) 1-5, p. 179, (ills.) 8, 9, 11, p. 180, (ills.) 16, 17, 19.
  • 18P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. (18), (ill.) 5, p. 181, (ills.) 25, 26, p. 182, (ill.) 27.
  • 19P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 178, (ill.) 1, p. 180, (ill.) 20, p. 182, (ill.) 32.
  • 20P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 178, (ill.) 3, p. 179, (ill.) 9.
  • 21P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 25, 179, (ill.) 8.
  • 22P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters 1594-ca. 1640 and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, Lingen 1992, p. 180, (ills.) 16-17.
  • 23Meijer in E. de Jongh et al., Fish: Still Lifes by Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1750, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 225, no. 6.