Still-Life

Maerten Boelema de Stomme's work belongs to the tradition of the so-called 'monochromatic' style of still-life painting, developed by Pieter Claesz. and Willem Claesz. Heda in Haarlem in the 1630s and 1640s. During this period they concentrated on breakfast (ontbijtjes) and banquet (banketjes) pieces, characterised by a simple and harmonious arrangement of objects on a table-top, painted in a limited range of colour and tone. Maerten Boelema's dated works are confined to the years when he was working in Heda's studio and encompass a similar range of subjects to those favoured by his master.

The present canvas shows a still-life of a roemer, a peeled lemon and an overturned tazza. Often the objects represented also appear in Heda's still-lifes, indicating a sharing of props in the studio. Occasionally it appears that artists from different studios also exchanged props: for example, objects featuring in Boelema's picture also appear in compositions by Pieter Claesz.