Kalf, Willem

Willem Kalf ( Netherlands. Willem Kalf , 1619 , Rotterdam - July 31, 1693 , Amsterdam ) - one of the most famous Dutch still life masters.

Willem Kalf
Birth name	Willem kalf
Date of Birth	1619 ( 1619 )
Place of Birth	Rotterdam
Date of death	July 31, 1693 ( 1693-07-31 )
Place of death	Amsterdam
A country	Republic of the United Provinces
Genre	still life

Willem Kalf was the sixth child in the family of a wealthy Rotterdam cloth merchant and a member of the city council of Rotterdam. Willem's father died in 1625 , when the boy was 6 years old. Mother continued the family business, but without much success. There is no evidence of which of the artists Kalf studied; perhaps his teacher was Hendrik Pot from Haarlem , where the Kalfs' relatives lived. Shortly before the death of his mother in 1638 , Willem left his hometown and moved to The Hague , and then in 1640-41. settled in Paris . There, thanks to his " peasant interiors ", written in the Flemish tradition, close to the work of David Teniers and other artists of the XVII century., Kalf quickly gained recognition. On his rustic interiors, human figures were more likely in the background, and all the viewer's attention was concentrated on well-lit, colorful, and expertly laid out fruits, vegetables, and various household items.

Back in Paris, Kalf managed to create, on the basis of the so-called banquet scenes ( banketjes ), known from the paintings of Peter Klas , Willem Klas Kheda and Jan de Heyem , a new form of a skillfully grouped still life with expensive, richly decorated objects (mostly bottles , plates, glasses) of light -reflecting materials - gold, silver, tin or glass. This mastery of the artist reached its peak in the Amsterdam period of his work in fascinating " luxurious still lifes " ( pronkstilleven ). The best-known (and at a height of 2 m the largest) Calf's work of the Paris period is a stunning still life with precious vessels, armor and weapons, made in 1644-45. presumably commissioned by Marshal de Tesse and now stored at the Musee de Tesse in Le Mans.

In 1646 , Willem Kalf returned to Rotterdam for a while, then moved to Amsterdam and Hoorn , where in 1651 he married Cornelia Pluvier , daughter of a Protestant priest . Cornelia was a famous calligrapher and poetess, was friends with Konstantin Hugens , the personal secretary of three staffers of the young Dutch Republic, a respected poet and probably the most experienced expert in world theater and musical art of his time. In 1653 , the couple moved to Amsterdam , where they had four children. Despite his solvency, Kalf never got his own house. He often helped colleagues and acquaintances in need. In the Amsterdam period, Kalf began to include exotic objects in his perfect still lifes: Chinese vases, shells and until that time tropical fruits not seen - semi-peeled oranges and lemons. These items were brought to the Netherlands from America, they were the favorite items of prestige of the prosperous burghers, who showed their prosperity. Like all still lifes of that time, Kalf's creations were intended to express the iconographic thought of transience - “memento mori” (“remember death”), to serve as a warning that all things, living and non-living, are finally transient. Kalf, however, was more important. All his life he had a keen interest in the play of light and light effects on various materials, starting with the texture of woolen carpets, the glitter of metal objects made of gold , silver or tin , the soft glow of porcelain and multi-colored shells, and ending with the mysterious flickering of the faces of beautiful glasses and vases in venetian style. The composition of Kalf's still lifes thought out to the smallest detail is provided not only by specific rules, but also by the unique and complex directing of the light. As in his early peasant interiors, individual, very colorful objects are flooded with light from an invisible source (remember, for example, only the shining red lobster from the famous " Still Life with the Horn of the Amsterdam Guild of Arrows of St. Sebastian, lobster and goblets "). Other valuable objects - faceted, often half-filled with goblets of wine, emerge from the darkness of the background gradually, after a while. Often their shape is only surprisingly guessed in the reflection of light rays. No one except Kalf could not so realistically show the light penetrating through the shell of the nautilus . Quite rightly, Kalf is called the “ Wermer of Still Life Painting,” and in some places Kalf surpassed him.

Since 1663 , Kalf wrote less, he was engaged in the sale of art and became a sought-after expert in art. In particular, he, along with other artists (including Jan Vermeer ), participated in the evaluation of the notorious Italian collection of fake paintings, which in 1672 was offered to buy to the "Great Elector " Friedrich Wilhelm .

Willem Kalf died at the age of 74, having been injured in a fall on his way home, returning from his guests. Thanks to his unique pictorial abilities, coupled with an excellent education and extensive knowledge in the natural sciences, he greatly expanded the illusionistic possibilities of a still life. His creations are unsurpassed examples of this art.