Provenance: Anonymous Sale, Paris, Millon & Associés, 8 June 1998, lot 29;
Private Collection, France.
Note: This opulent still life reveals the influence of the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem and suggests that although Craen was not recorded in Antwerp, he may been apprenticed there in the mid-1640s.1 In fact, very little is known about Laurens Craen's life prior to his appearance in Middelburg in 1649 and only about 20 works can be solidly attributed to his hand. He is first recorded as a member of the Middelburg painters guild in 1654, after trying, apparently unsuccessfully, to offer his services as a painter to Constantin Huygens and the court at The Hague. He was still in Middelburg in 1664 when his wife's death is recorded and his own death is recorded in the registers for 1670.
1. A. van der Willigen and F. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 68.
Sotheby's. Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture, New York, 27 janv. 2011