Organizers
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen
From the museum website
Willem Kalf may be the most important painter of still life pictures of the Golden Age. But, oddly enough, he is not that well-known. Kalf was born in 1619 in Rotterdam, and left for Paris at a young age. There, he painted interiors of barns, a theme typical of Rotterdam, which made him famous in Paris. After his return, in 1651, he married a wealthy and literary gifted lady in Hoorn. After which he lived in Amsterdam until his death in 1693.
Here, he painted still life pictures of very valuable objects, that sparkled against a dark background. It is as if the silver goblets and platters, the flashing Venetian glasses and expensive Chinese plates want to enchant the viewer with their mysterious splendor. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen presents Willem Kalf for the first time with thirty paintings, mainly from foreign museums.
Catalogue
Das Licht von Willem Kalf (1619-1693)
Includes essays by seven authors
Ca. 160 pp., with ca. 125 color and 50 black-and-white illustrations
24 x 30 cm, paperbound
Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin
ISBN 3-422-06673-X