18 Facts About Willem Kalf

Willem Kalf was one of the most prominent Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age.

Willem Kalf was born in Rotterdam in a house at the Hoogstraat, in 1619.

Willem Kalf was baptized the same year in the church of Saint Lawrence.

Willem Kalf was only six years old at the time his father died.

Willem Kalf remained in Rotterdam with his mother and started showing interest in painting when he was roughly 18 years old.

Willem Kalf's mother died shortly after that in 1638, after which Willem left his hometown for The Hague before he moved to Paris around 1641.

Proof for Willem Kalf's stay in Paris was given by Van Gelder, in an episode in the life history of the Antwerp resident Philips Vleugels, written down by his son Nicolaas and kept in the library of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Willem Kalf's interiors were highly priced in France well into the 18th century.

For example, Willem Kalf's painting, Interior of a rustic kitchen, now located in the Louvre, was once acquired by Francois Boucher during his trip to the Netherlands in 1766.

The fact that Willem Kalf acquired great fame in Paris was not only due to the enormous amount of genre scenes he painted.

Willem Kalf's charms caught the attention of Constantijn Huygens, the stadholders secretary, who owned one of her engraved roemers.

Apart from his marriage to Cornelia, it appears surprising a painter such as Willem Kalf would have established himself in Hoorn for there was no other well-known colleague situated there, apart from Jacob Waben with whose work that of Kalf certainly has no connection.

Willem Kalf would remain in Amsterdam until his death in 1693.

Amsterdam was a thriving city, filled with painters, art dealers, and buyers at the time Willem Kalf came to live there.

Willem Kalf was a painter of flowers, but he was more of a merchant than a painter, and kept young people making copies or doing other works; because it was to him most of the time that we addressed ourselves when we had work to do.

Willem Kalf went home but tripped on the Bantemer Brug.

Willem Kalf went to bed only to die at ten o'clock that night.

Rather than focusing on Dutch cheeses and baked goods, Willem Kalf used the items mentioned above that have been imported from various parts of the world.