Adriaen Jansz. Kraen (also spelt Craen), Dutch painter. He was active in Haarlem where he was first mentioned in 1637. He enrolled as a student of Jacob Willemsz. de Wet the Elder in 1638. He became master of the guild in 1642.
He was a specialist in the fruit still-life genre, many of his still-lifes were erroneously attributed to Willem Claesz. Heda and Pieter Claesz.
This ‘banketje’ is a still-life with an overturned Roemer on a pewter wine flagon (a ‘Jan Steen kan’), a pie, a bread roll and a partly-peeled lemon on pewter platers, a Roemer, knives, walnuts and vine leaves on a draped table. It is an early work by the artist.
Previously the painting was attributed to Kraen’s older townsman Pieter Claesz., on whose style Kraen based his own. The crossed tazza and silvergilt cup that Kraen has included in this still-life is a characteristic motif of the artist, as is the representation of the silver apostle spoon leaning across the broken pie crust.
