Pieter de Putter must have been the very first fish still life painter in the Northern Netherlands. He spent almost his entire career in The Hague. Although he lived not far from the sea he painted almost exclusively freshwater fish. He painted his three favourite fish here: bream, perch and Northern pike.

 

 

Dutch painter

Probably born in Middlburg circa 1600 - 1659 Beverwijk

 

Painter of fish still lifes; occasionally he also painted the interiors of a fisherman’s shed and portraits.

Pieter de Putter was probably the first painter in the Northern Netherlands who specialised in fish still-life painting. According to Fred G. Meijer he must have started depicting fish somewhere in the 1630s.

 

 

His family had already moved to The Hague before 1605. He was probably a pupil of his father, Joost.

Pieter de Putter spent his complete career in The Hague. He moved to Beverwijk, 20 km NW of Amsterdam, in the year before his death.

 

  

He was the teacher of the still life painter Jacob Biltius. 

 

Pieter de Putter signed his paintings with a complex monogram “PDVTR”,

with the “P” inside the “D”. 

There is only one dated work known by our painter, from 1644.

 

 

 

De Putter almost exclusively painted freshwater fish. The following fish are represented in our still life:

 

- The large fish at the centre is a bream. 

- The two fishes above and under its tail are perches.

- The top fish at right is a Northern pike.

(in Dutch that is “brasem, baars en snoek”).

 

As you can see in the comparative works these are the three favourite (freshwater) fish that de Putter painted.

 

 

Because this is already a more elaborate composition, in which de Putter has added two dead birds.