Cornelis de Heem
1631–1695 · Southern Netherlands · Flemish Baroque, Dutch Golden Age painting
The story
Cornelis de Heem grew up inside the most famous still-life workshop of his day. He was baptised in Leiden in 1631, and when he was five his father, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, moved the family to Antwerp. Cornelis learned the trade from him there and became a master of the Antwerp painters' guild in 1660.
The family worked so closely that their pictures are still hard to tell apart. A brother, a nephew and his own son David all painted fruit and flowers in much the same way, and they probably often shared the work. Cornelis's own pieces tend to be small, with a liking for strong blues.
From 1667 until the late 1680s he worked in the Dutch Republic, in Utrecht, in the small town of IJsselstein just south of it, and in The Hague. He then went back to Antwerp, where he was buried in May 1695.
