Dutch painter

Leiden 1633 – 1684 Leiden

 

Still life painter.

 

Sam Segal has suggested in the past that he was probably a pupil of Pieter de Ring (1615/20 – 1660) in Leiden.

 

Our painter was strongly influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Utrecht 1606 – 1683/84 Antwerp), one of the most, if not the most important 17th century Dutch still life painter, who has been active in Leiden, Utrecht and Antwerp. De Heem had moved with his mother, stepfather and sisters in 1625 from his native Utrecht to Leiden. He stayed there until somewhere between 1632 and 1636 (when he is recorded in Antwerp). 

 

In his early years Hannot was actually simply copying de Heem. In 1650 Hannot became a member of the Painter’s Guild of Leiden. According to Fred Meijer our painting must date from the 1670.

 

Hannot seems to have spent his entire career in Leiden, where, interestingly enough, he was also active as a wine merchant. Similarities between his paintings dating from 1654 and those painted in Antwerp that same year by the Heem might suggest a sojourn that very year in the Antwerp studio of de Heem.

 

 

The dark background is typical of de Heem. A similar box, but often of light blue colour was one of de Heem’s favourite props.

Left of the centre of our composition is painted a so-called lid glass, which one does not often see depicted.

At the upper left one sees the stem of a German Roemer glass. As the rest of the glass is missing, this might indicate that originally our painting was a bit higher. German Roemer glasses, recognizable by their stems decorated with prunts to ensure a safe grip, often appear in Flemish and Dutch still lifes. Just as the white wines from the valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle they were popular in the Low Countries. To temper the sweetness of these wines people would add some lemon juice to them. To the left of our Roemer glass one sees indeed a lemon.

 

Paintings by Hannot are very rare. Some must have been falsely given to Jan Davidsz de Heem, just by adding a letter d in the monogram (between the J and H, as in our painting). Others have been attributed erroneously to Pieter de Ring.

 

 

Because it is a classical Dutch still life.