17th Century Painter Clara Peeters Took Dutch Still-Life Paintings to New Heights

Clara Peeters—a Flemish still-life painter—was one of the most talented and creative artists among the early practitioners of still-life paintings in Europe during the early 17th century.

She specialized in paintings of food and was prominent among the artists who shaped the traditions of the Netherlandish ontbitjes (breakfast pieces) and banketjes (banquet pieces). Not only was she part of the first generation to specialize in this type of still-life painting, Peeters was the only Flemish woman known to have focused on genre painting in the early 17th century. Indeed, she was one of only a few women to dedicate her professional life to painting in early modern Europe.

In Clara Peeters, author Alejandro Vergara-Sharp discusses what is known of Peeters’s biography while presenting the historical and cultural context behind her art, style, and techniques. This volume establishes the artist as a leader in her field by examining Peeters’s artistry and the material culture reflected in her paintings. This timely volume sheds light on the limitations that Peeters encountered because of her gender, and how she responded to them in her art, while assessing her importance as a painter of still life.