AvB

Abraham van Beyeren (1620/1621-1690). Initially painted views of rivers and seascapes, influenced by jan van Goyen, later on he made fish still lifes and fruit, flower and opulent still lifes (pronkstillevens). Successful artists, some 150 to 300 works of his hands are known and can be traced in inventories.

Born in The Hague where he studied for the first few years with the painter Tyman Cracht; continued studies in Leiden; moved to Delft; back to The Hague where many of his works were entered in the annual sale in 1647. His first wife died, leaving him three young daughters. He then married the rich Anna van den Queborn who was trained as a still life painter.

Debts accumulated. Hearranged to repay some debts with paintings. In 1648 he lived on Choorstraat, Delft. He moved back to The Hague, returning to the Delft Guild from 1657 to 1663. Buysen mentions that he may have fled to Delft to avoid his Hague creditors. Had quite a bad track record in debts. Fled to Amsterdam after another debt crisis in 1668.

He is considered to be one of the foremost Dutch still life painters.

The painting on the right is from the Mauritshuis collecion, The Hague. For other work see the wonderful exhibition catalogue The Dutch Still Life, Cleveland-Amsterdam, cat nr 58. 59.

Note. RKD Bredius archive. Box 'Steden B', containing copy of doc. burial of child on 5 Dec. 1648. Saur, I, 346. Bredius Kunstler-Inventare IV p. 1165-1172. E. Buysen, Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Hoogsteder The Hague / Waanders Zwolle, 1998, p. 96.

This page forms part of a large encyclopedic site on Delft. Research by Drs. Kees Kaldenbach (email). A full presentation is on view at johannesvermeer.info.

Launched 16 February 2005; Last update March 1, 2017. More info in the RKD site.