The food paintings of the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Clara Peeters helped bring the still life into maturity as a genre.
Small European exhibitions with a big punch
Clara Peeters was among the first and most accomplished painters to specialize in food-laden still lifes, replete with cheese and delicate biscuits, candy, and nuts as well as ornate vessels and floral bouquets. Revered especially for her playful use of light and reflection—for example her own distorted portrait shown on the polished surface of a gilded covered cup—the artist nevertheless remains a mysterious figure.