GRASDORP, Willem - b. 1678 Zwolle, d. 1723 Amsterdam

Dutch painter. He was the son of an architectural and genre painter Jan Grasdorp (1651-1693). Willem, according to Arnold Houbraken, was apprenticed in 1697 to the Hamburg still-life painter Ernst Stuven (c.1660-1712), who is purported to have treated him badly and provoked a lawsuit. Grasdorp subsequently became a specialist in flower and fruit still-lifes.

Little is known of his life. His only recorded dated work was of 1710 and he is known to have exhibited two fruit still-lifes in the Amsterdam Town Hall the following year. In the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig, there is another still-life of grapes, peaches, and flowers by the artist.

Grasdorp’s compositions, especially his flower pieces, have been likened to those of the women painters, Rachel Ruysch and Maria van Oosterwijk, while his hard and exacting execution recalls the polish of Abraham Mignon and Elias van den Broeck. The last mentioned provides the closest stylistic parallels.

While Grasdorp was active in the eighteenth century, his art is entirely grounded in the pictorial conventions of the previous century.

Still-Life

Willem Grasdorp was specialised in still-lifes of flowers and fruit. He was influenced by Rachel Ruysch, as seen in the present painting, showing a still-life of flowers in a glass vase on a table including tulips, peonies, roses, marigolds, poppies and convolvulus with a snail on the ledge.