Jan Davisz de Heem Biography

  Jan Davidsz. de Heem(1606-83/84). Dutch still-life painter.
  De Heem was born at Utrecht and his rare early paintings are in the style of Balthasar van der Ast, who taught him there.
Later De Heem worked in Leiden and showed that he had studied the restrained and simple paintings of the Haarlem still-life artists Claesz. and Heda.

  In 1636 De Heem moved to Antwerp, became a citizen of that city in 1637, and spent most of his very productive life there. The paintings De Heem did in Flanders are the ones for which he is most renowned and are very different in spirit from his earlier paintings: splendid flower pieces and large compositions of exquisitely laid tables which breathe all the opulent exuberance of Flemish Baroque painting. De Heem paintings formed a link between the Dutch and Flemish still-life traditions and De Heem is claimed by both schools. De Heem came from a large family of painters and his many followers in Flanders and Holland included his son Cornelis (1631-95).