Clara Peeters

H.B., Leipzig;
His sale, Hecht, Berlin, 27 February 1928, lot 118;
D.A. Hoogendijk, Amsterdam, 1932;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 6 May 1996, lot 9, for £52,801.

P. Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters, Lingen 1992, p 181, reproduced p. 39, fig. 26, where listed as location unknown.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is in good condition. It is evenly chamfered and slightly bowed. The paint surface is stable, if a little raised along the horizontal wood grain. There has been some abrasion to the raised 'peaks' of the grain. The background is thinly painted and there has been some substantial augmentation undertaken. Elsewhere, throughout the paint surface, minute losses can be detected, some of which have been retouched out and are discoloured; these are clearly visible under U-V light. The quality of the paint is good and although there have been some paint losses there has been no abrasion or excessive over cleaning in the past. Modern black and painted frame-some damages."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is one of three paintings by the artist depicting fish in ceramic colanders, all of which are of broadly the same dimensions. Of the other two, one is in Washington D.C., National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the other is in Antwerp, Musée des Beaux-Arts.¹ All three paintings are dated by Hibbs Decoteau to the 1620s, and of the three, the Washington painting is considered the earliest due to its similarites with Peeters' known works of 1611-12, sharing a similarly high viewpoint to her food paintings of 1612 such as the Herring, Cherries and Artichoke.² The present work and the Antwerp painting share more in common with her work of the 1630s, being taken from a lower viewpoint, compressing the objects so that they overlap.

Little is known of Peeters' training due to a scarcity of documentary evidence. Her earliest dated work is from 1608 and the last record of her is from 1657. It is surprising perhaps, given her evident mastery of the genre of still life painting, that her name does not feature in the records of the Antwerp guild, which had already started to admit women by 1602.

1. See Hibbs Decoteau, under Literature, pp. 128-9, fig. 25, & pp. 130-1, fig. 27, respectively.
2. ibid, p. 180, fig. 17, reproduced pp. 30-31.