ADRIAEN JANSZ. KRAEN (HAARLEM 1619-1679)

Little is known about Adriaen Kraen. He is first recorded in Haarlem in 1637 and a year later he is mentioned as a pupil of Jacob de Wet I whose sister he married. By 1642 he was one of the masters of the Haarlem guild. Only a few signed and even fewer dated pictures from his hand are known, one being a picture which was with Douwes, Amsterdam, in 1977, dated 1642. Many of Kraen's pictures have been attributed in the past to his Haarlem colleagues Pieter Claesz. and Willem Claesz. Heda and the works of these painters have many characteristics in common. All three artists obviously specialized in the so-called monochrome banketjes, of which the present picture is a good example. A picture with a similar composition was sold in these rooms, 11 May 1994, lot 26.