Floris van Schooten (? c. 1585/88- 1656 Haarlem)

Since remembrance this large kitchen still life has decorated the wall of the Sint Nicolaas Gasthuis in The Hague, a medieval parish relief founded in the 14th Century by Duke Aelbrecht van Beijeren for his court circle. It housed elderly men and women from the court dignitaries of the Binnenhof for centuries, providing care for the ill and poor and its residents were granted privileges such as cutting the town’s wool and fishing in the Hofvijver. In 1388 Duke Aelbrecht donated a chapel to the Gasthuis on its premises and soon a ‘Waag’ was constructed, operated by the Gasthuis. In 1615 the chapel was altered into a ‘Vleeshal’ (meat hall). The Sint Nicolaas Gasthuis was the richest parish of The Hague, however, after the French Invasion old privileges were taken away and the parish was forced to sell their farmlands. In the 19th century the Gasthuis flourished again and became a guest house exclusively for elderly protestant women. Part of its old inventory is on loan to the Haags Historisch Museum, The Hague.

The early oeuvre of Floris van Schooten consists of lively kitchen scenes with figures that derive from the tradition established by Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer, such as the present large panel, which can in all likelihood be dated to circa 1620. Its composition and style can very well be compared to the kitchen still life sold with Tajan, Paris, 9 December 1999, lot 49 (once in Kasteel Biljoen, Rheden), with the same measurements, also monogrammed and dated 1620.

In the early years Van Schooten also composed colourful breakfast pieces viewed from an elevated position like those of his Haarlem contemporary Floris van Dyck, to move in the late 1620s and 1630s to more monochrome breakfast pieces in the manner of Pieter Claesz and Willem Heda. The artist became dean of the St. Luke Guild in Haarlem in 1639.