Glorious clutter - still-lifes by Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten

 

Roestraten's still-lifes fall within the Dutch pronkstilleven - "ostentatious still-life" - tradition, in which luxurious objects are arranged in an often seemingly random, frequently overladen, composition, with the intention of demonstrating the artist's skill in representing a rich variety of surface textures. 

Since the titles of these paintings are almost without exception merely descriptive - Still-life with Candlestick, Chinese Porcelain Cups and a Bowl, Silver Lidded Jar, Musical Instruments, etc., etc. - I haven't bothered to label them. Likewise, I didn't even begin to attempt the doubtless futile task of ascribing a date to each piece. But they can be dated between 1666, when the artist arrived in London, and his death in 1700.

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Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten (21 April 1630, Haarlem - 10 July 1700, London), Dutch painter best known for still-lifes, he also painted genre scenes and portraits. Beginning in his hometown of Haarlem, he was a student of Frans Hals for at least five years, from 1649. He moved to Amsterdam two years later, and in 1654 he married a daughter of Frans Hals, Adriaentje, who was six year his senior. He and his wife lived in Amsterdam before moving to London in 1666. That same year he suffered a hip injury during the Great Fire of London, which caused him to walk with a limp for the rest of his life. Van Roestraten was likely introduced to king Charles II by Sir Peter Lely on the condition that he paint no portraits, thus avoiding competition for the court painter. He focused, then, on still-life painting and was quite successful. He lived on the south side of King's Street, putting him in close proximity to the Palace of Whitehall and to the studios of other artists, including Peter Lely and John Michael Wright. When his first wife died he remarried a younger wife by the name of Clara, but died soon afterwards, at the age of seventy. He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.