description

Oil on Panel, 31 x 41.5 cm
Monogrammed and dated lower right: PC 1657

Provenance

Since ca. 1830 in a private swiss collection;
Sale Koller, Zürich, 13 June 1986;
Private Collection, Germany;
London, Maastricht, Noortman Gallery, 1987;
Private Collection.

Literature

Weltkunst, 56. Jg., Mai 1986;
M. Brunner-Bulst, Pieter Claesz., Kritischer Oeuvrekatalog, Lingen 2004, cat. no. 231 p.342, reproduced in colour p.119 and 117 (detail).

Detail Description

The present painting a 'Tobacco Still-life' is perhaps one of Pieter Claesz. most admired subjects. Throughout his life time he would regularly paint such compositions, always with great attention to detail and originality. Pieter Claesz's paintings of the last 10 years of his life display great verve. A of late works attest to his undiminished powers of invention. His late work is infused with compositional confidence and painterly expression. In never ending inventive ways he combined objects in constantly new variants. even this last work bears witness to an inner strength that always succeeded in uniting the old, familiar motifs into a logical visual form.