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HABERT, François - b. ~1630 Paris, d. ~1680 Paris - WGA

HABERT, François

(b. ~1630 Paris, d. ~1680 Paris)

French painter. Little is known about the life of the artist. His oeuvre consists of a small number of signed still-lifes, that reveal how Habert was influenced by the many Dutch and Flemish still-life artists living in Paris, who brought with them the more sumptuous and decorative style that was to dominate the genre in the second half of the seventeenth century. His fruit pieces, for example, find inspiration in the works of Jan Fyt and Jan Davidsz. de Heem, while his floral still-lifes reveal an awareness of the paintings of Jean-Michel Picart.

Still-Life with Fruit
Still-Life with Fruit by

Still-Life with Fruit

This still-life displays a basket of grapes, a bowl of cherries, a silver-gilt columbine cup. It may be considered a ‘pronkstilleven’, an ‘ostentatious’ or ‘sumptuous’ piece, a type of still-life which was developed by Dutch artists such as Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Abraham van Beyeren and Willem Kalf, towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Valuable and rare objects, such as the silver-gilt cup and the blue and white porcelain bowls, often feature in works of this kind, and provided artists with the opportunity to demonstrate their technical mastery in rendering a wide range of textures and materials and the play of light across their varied surfaces. Such magnificent displays were generally set before a dark background, which only served to intensify the theatricality of their presentation.

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