Willem Claesz Heda

Still Life with a Broken Glass

1642

Inscriptions

  • signature and date, traces on the edge of the table on the right:Heda. 164[2?]

Technical notes

The support consists of two horizontally grained oak planks. The bevelling is uneven, with that at the top and bottom being narrower than on the left and right. The thin ground has a yellowish colour. The paint layers are thin and smooth. Impasto was used to indicate the structure of the objects, with a more impasted paint being applied for the highlights on the silver objects.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 27 juni 2005

Condition

Fair. The paint surface is severely abraded. There are discoloured areas of retouching, particularly along the joins of the panels, and discoloured varnish.

Provenance

...; sale, Gijsbert de Clercq (1850-1911), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 1 June 1897, no. 34, bought in; donated to the City of Amsterdam by Gijsbert de Clercq, Amsterdam, 1898; on loan to the museum from the City of Amsterdam since 1898

ObjectNumber: SK-C-610

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

The artist

Biography

Willem Claesz Heda (Haarlem 1594 - Haarlem 1680)

Willem Claesz Heda was born on 14 December 1594 as the third child of the Haarlem city architect Claes Pietersz Bagijn (1558-1632) and Anna Claesdr Rooswijk. He owed the surname Heda to his mother’s family. On 9 June 1619 he married Cornelia Jacobsdr, daughter of the Haarlem brewer Jacob Philipsz van Rijck. Since he was related to various Haarlem brewers’ families, he became professionally involved in the beer industry. He owned a few houses in Haarlem and seems to have been prosperous. In 1616 he became a member of the St George Civic Guard, in which he was a corporal from 1642 to 1645.

Nothing is known about Heda’s artistic training. He probably joined the Guild of St Luke in 1614, serving as warden in 1631-32, 1637-38, 1643 and 1651, and as dean in 1644 and 1652-53. He trained several painters in his workshop: Arnoldus Beresteyn (in 1637), Hendrik Heerschop (in 1642), Maerten Boelema de Stomme (1611-44) and his youngest son Gerrit Heda (c. 1624-49), who used the signature ‘jonge Heda’ on some of his works between 1642 and 1644.

Willem Claesz Heda started his career as a history painter with a Crucifixion triptych of 1626,1Sale, Amsterdam (Sotheby’s), 8 May 2001, no. 44 (ill.). but he was also known as a portrait painter. He and Pieter Claesz were mentioned as painters of banquet pieces in Samuel Ampzing’s Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem of 1628. Almost all his known paintings are still lifes, mostly breakfast and banquet pieces, with a few vanitas scenes. The compositions are often similar to those in the still lifes by Pieter Claesz. Most of his paintings are signed, and many are dated between 1628 and 1664.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

References
Ampzing 1628, p. 372; Schneider in Thieme/Becker XVI, 1923, pp. 215-16; Van der Willigen/Meijer 2003, p. 103; Van Thiel-Stroman 2006, pp. 189-95

Entry

The fairly simple still life of a broken glass, a rummer, a tazza lying on its side and the corner of a wooden table has the same monochrome tonality and structure seen in similar still lifes from the 1630s, but there appears to be less cohesion between the objects. The tazza with the engraved lobes, the foot of which is reflected in the pewter dish, is found in earlier Heda still lifes dated 1631 and 1634.2Illustrated in Vroom 1980, I, p. 67, fig. 82, II, pp. 66-68, nos. 331, 332, 343.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 121.

Literature

Vroom 1945, p. 82, no. 203; Vroom 1980, I, pp. 74-75, II, p. 75, no. 367; Gemar-Koeltzsch 1995, II, p. 429, no. 157/20

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 119, no. 1121; 1934, p. 121, no. 1121; 1960, p. 123, no. 1121; 1976, p. 263, no. C 610; 2007, no. 121

Citation

J.P. Filedt Kok, 2007, 'Willem Claesz. Heda, Still Life with a Broken Glass, 1642', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8636

(accessed 11 May 2025 06:09:44).

Footnotes

  • 1Sale, Amsterdam (Sotheby’s), 8 May 2001, no. 44 (ill.).
  • 2Illustrated in Vroom 1980, I, p. 67, fig. 82, II, pp. 66-68, nos. 331, 332, 343.