Dose of Art #189: Clara Peeters – Still Life with Nuts, Candy and Flowers (c. 1611)

We have seen work of her before and this is another great example of her skills as a still life artist. It is not only the (realistic) painting that requires skill but also arranging a scene in such a way that it looks both life-like, balanced and attractive to look at.

The pewter jug shows her reflection four times (two of them and the window reflection are shown here). The golden goblet shows it three times.

The subtitle of this painting is “with the artist reflected several times in the metal pieces”. And as you can see in the detail, she is indeed reflected. Painting reflections was popular for some time as it showed both the skills of the painter in painting light and material and it was an opportunity to leave a mark (but Peeter’s seven reflections seem a bit overdone).

The detailed and realistic flowers resemble closely the illustrations used for scientific publications.