In short

Floris van Schooten was active during his complete career in Haarlem, where he was strongly influenced by other still life painters. At the start of his career he painted rich still lifes in market and kitchen scenes. Then he turned to breakfast pieces and during his last years of activity he painted fruit still lifes. Therefore our still life must date from circa 1650.

About Floris van Schooten

Dutch painter
Haarlem? circa 1580/88 - 1656 Haarlem

Still life painter.

There is only one fully signed work known by van Schooten, a breakfast still life, now in the Von der Heydt Museum of Wuppertal in Germany. There are over 60 monogrammed paintings known and an even larger number unsigned, but securely attributed paintings by him.

Van Schooten was the son of a leading Catholic family of Amsterdam who came to live in Haarlem. He is first recorded in Haarlem in 1605. In those years many Catholic families left Amsterdam where the Protestants had the upper hand in local government, for Haarlem, where the climate for Catholicism was more tolerant. The young van Schooten became a member of the Haarlem Painters Guild of Saint Luke and married end 1612 the daughter of the wealthiest beer brewer there. When his wife died in 1626 the couple had 3 daughters and a son, Johannes, who also became a painter.

Floris van Schooten was an important, industrious master, but not an innovator himself. He stood open for all innovations that occurred in the (Haarlem) still life scene and he reacted promptly to them. His oeuvre reflects the development of still life painting in the Netherlands.

- His early works are rich still lifes in market and kitchen scenes, with or without figures, in the old tradition of Pieter Aertsen (1508 – 1575), who was actually active in Antwerp and in Amsterdam, and of his nephew Joachim Beuckelaer (circa 1533 – 1575).

- Then he turned to breakfast pieces, at first influenced by Floris van Dyck (circa 1575 – 1651) and by Nicolaes Gillis (active in 1612, died in or after 1632); later influenced in their simplified content by Pieter Claesz. (circa 1597 – 1661) and Willem Heda (circa 1596 – 1680).

- Finally in his last years he painted fruit still life in the style of Roelof Koets (circa 1592/93 – 1654).

Van Schooten became the dean of the Painters Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem in1639.

Why should you buy this painting ?

Because it is such a serene 17th century still life, simple and beautiful.