Lot 77: Laurens Craen (active circa 1643-1664)

A lobster on a pewter plate, a crayfish, a vine decorating a Delft earthenware jug and a fa‡on-de-Venise wine glass on a draped table signed and dated Laurens.Craen.f.164(3?) centre right oil on panel 59.8 x 74.1 cm PROVENANCE with Douwes, Amsterdam, 1944, from whom acquired by the mother of the late owner. LITERATURE N.R.A.Vroom, De schilders van het monochrome banketje, 1945, no.108, fig.177. W.Bernt, The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 1969, I, no.269, ill. N.R.A.Vroom, A modest message etc., 1980, II, p.45, no.201; I, p.139, fig.183. E.Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holl„ndische Stillebenmaler im 17.Jahrhundert, 1995, II, p.272, no.86/1, ill. NOTES The present picture is one of only two dated still lifes by the artist; the other, signed and dated 1646, is in the collection of Van Aerde, Leerdam (E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, op.cit., p.272, no.86/2). These two pictures are likely to be early works; their compositions reveal the influence of Jan Davidsz. de Heem. Little is known about the artist, his sure output consists of twenty pictures. SALESROOM NOTICE Please note that there is additional literature: Fred Meyer in Saur Allgemeines Knstlerlexikon, XXII, 1999, p.132, as dated 1646 or 1648.