Willem Claesz Heda Dutch Still Life Painting

Willem Claesz. Heda was one of the greatest painters or "Little Dutch Masters" of the Dutch Golden Age of painting in the Netherlands of the 17th century. Heda specialized in still life painting, particularly of the "Late Breakfast" genre, in painstakingly realistic sometimes nearly monochromatic arrangements of food, tableware, glasses, and objects in dynamic diagonal compositions on table tops. Like many of his contemporaries, Heda was forgotten for a period but his reputation revived in the 19th century with the advent of realism and modern painting which set still life painting in a place of honor. Today Heda's art hangs in the great museums of the world.