Kalf, Willem

Dutch painter who is primarily remembered for his meticulous and often complex still lifes, although he explored other genres. Dutch painter, art dealer and appraiser. He was formerly thought to have been born in 1622, but H. E. van Gelder’s important archival research established the artist’s correct place and date of birth. Kalf came from a prosperous patrician family in Rotterdam. Probably trained with Hendrik Pot in Haarlem. He is documented in Paris in 1641, and possibly arrived there a couple of years earlier; by 1646 he had returned to Rotterdam, and in 1651 he married in Hoorn.