Clara Peeters was a pioneer in the field of still life painting, and one of the few women painters active in Early Modern Europe. She worked in Antwerp, and her first dated painting is from 1607. Approximately forty paintings by her are known today.
The paintings of Clara Peeters are elegant and precise. They are also enigmatic. What did a porcelain vessel of the type that we see in these still lifes mean to someone around 1610? And an artichoke or a sea shell? The goal of this exhibition is to answer these questions, and to highlight the achievements of this little known but extraordinary artist.
The exhibition in Madrid features two important paintings by Peeters from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe.