(Arnemuiden 1632–1687 Amsterdam)
Still Life with a Fish, Bread, Fruit and Wine on a Stone Table with Pedestal Relief and Green Drapery,
oil on canvas, 92 x 72 cm, framed

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph. He does point out that the artist’s son, Hendrick van Streeck, could also have been the author, although his father is the more likely candidate.

The present painting is a typical example of van Streeck’s magnificently arranged still lifes, their deep rich colouring set against a dark background.

A plate with fish, bread and an onion, fruit and glasses are set out to form a spare and well-considered composition. The slightly tilted dish accentuates the painting’s diagonal length. Soft light reflections of light sparkle in the darkness, a green tablecloth with golden fringe is draped over the right-hand corner of the table. The dark, neutral background serves as a foil for the illuminated objects, lending them their three-dimensional appearance.

Juriaen van Streeck’s still lifes were influenced by Willem Kalf and Barend van der Meer. He is recorded as a citizen of Amsterdam in 1655. His son Hendrick, born in 1659, began to study with him before becoming apprenticed to the church painter Emanuel de Witte and the sculptor Willem van der Hoeven, and his works are often artistically very similar to those of his father.

Nevertheless, unlike his father, he shifts the subject of the painting closer to the viewer, thereby lending it an intimate and yet monumental appearance. His father, in contrast, places stronger emphasis on the representative nature of the depiction, maintaining a greater distance from the motif which is composed of just a few, select pieces. His characteristic brushstrokes, painterly and free, particularly in their reflection of light, also mark out Hendrick van Streeck as an accomplished painter.