Pieter SNIJERS (Antwerp, 1681–1752)

Maurice van de Walle (1863–1946) Collection, subsequently passed down through the family; private collection, Belgium.

Born in Antwerp in 1681, Pieter Snijers grew up in a wealthy household that fostered artistic development: his father, the wealthy merchant Peter Snyers, provided him with the means for a solid apprenticeship under Alexander van Bredael (1663–1720), one of the Antwerp masters of his time. 

As early as 1694, the very young painter appeared on the Antwerp guild’s registers; he was admitted as a master to the Brussels Guild in 1705, and then to that of his hometown in 1707, thereby consolidating a strong position within the Flemish artistic community. In 1741, he became one of the directors of the Antwerp Academy, contributing to the transition that would gradually supplant the old guilds. He died in the same city on 4 May 1752, at the age of seventy-one.
Whilst Snijers also distinguished himself in portraiture and genre scenes, it was in still life that he fully demonstrated his talent and artistic personality.

This Still Life that we present eloquently illustrates his ability to display, on a horizontal canvas, a profusion of skilfully arranged foodstuffs, where the eye travels from the dark, glossy mass of red cabbage to the velvety bunches of grapes and peaches, and on to the small birds and eggs that punctuate the composition.
The work follows the Antwerp tradition of pantry still lifes, inherited from the great Baroque masters Frans Snyders (1579–1657) and Jan Fyt (1611–1661). Snijers, however, tends towards a new sensibility, more attentive to subtle chromatic harmonies than to triumphant excesses. A painter who has been overshadowed for too long by his illustrious predecessors, he deserves to be rediscovered for his characteristic bluish tones, the finesse of his rendering of details and the inventive richness of his compositions.