Clara Peeters (1594-c.1640)

• Was a Flemish still-life painter from Antwerp.
• She worked in both the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic.
• Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists working professionally in seventeenth-century Europe.
• Peeters specialized in still-life paintings with food.
• She was prominent among the artists who shaped the traditions of the Netherlandish ontbijtjes, "breakfast pieces," scenes of food and simple vessels, and banketjes, "banquet pieces" with expensive cups and vessels in precious metals.
• Peeters' first-known painting, signed and dated 1607, reflects the technical and compositional skill of a trained artist.
• Her style suggests training in Antwerp, an early center of still-life specialization.
• Although she was not in its records, at least one painting of Peeters bears the stamp of the Antwerp Guild on its back, indicating she may indeed have been a member, or at least worked on panels made by members of the Antwerp Guild.
• Next