Beyeren, Abraham van

Beyeren, Abraham van (1620/21-90). Dutch painter, little regarded in his day but now considered one of the greatest of still-life painters.

He initially specialized in fish subjects, but around the middle of the 17th century he began to devote himself to sumptuous banquet tables laden with silver and gold vessels, Venetian glassware, fine fruit, and expensive table coverings of damask, satin, and velvet. Works of this kind, in which he was rivalled only by Kalf, gave him ever greater opportunity than his fish pieces to demonstrate his ability to show the play of light on varied surfaces and organize forms and colors into an opulently blended composition. He worked in various towns before settling in Overschie in 1678.

Still-Life with Fruit
Oil on panel; Pinakothek, Munich