Heda, Willem Claesz

He came from a wealthy family. Nothing is known about his artistic training. A document from 1620 already cites him as a painter in Haarlem. From 1631 onwards, he is documented in the book of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke, of which he was a council member on repeated occasions between 1637 and 1652; deken (dean) in 1641 and 1642 and hoofdman (captain) in 1637, 1643 and 1651. Since 1637, he admitted pupils into his workshop; among them was his son Gerret Willemsz. Heda (active between 1642 and 1649).
Early in his career, he painted religious scenes and portraits. However, he must have turned to still-life painting early on, since, in 1628, the local chronicler Samuel Ampzing praised his banketten (food still lifes) together with those of Pieter Claesz. (1597–1660). This was the genre that he produced until his death and of which he came to be considered one of the great masters. His earliest surviving still life is a vanitas dated 1628 (Museum Bredius in The Hague). His early still lifes closely follow the so-called ontbijtjes (breakfast tables) by Floris van Dijck (1575–1651). Around 1629, he began constructing still lifes that were classified by Vroom as monochrome banketjes (monochrome still lifes). These were greatly refined compositions based on an almost monochromic tonal range of browns and yellows corresponding with the chromatic tendency of landscape painters of his time who belong to Jan van Goyen’s (1596–1656) generation. Around 1641, he began to evolve towards more complex compositions with brighter colours. The last surviving works date from 1665 and are of inferior artistic quality (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado, 2009, p. 254).