The Dutch painter Jan Davidszon de Helm (1606 - 1683/84) led the genre of still life to a perfection never before attained. He was able to depict bouquets of flowers, food, wine goblets, crawling insects, rotting fruit, silver bowls and transparent glass with unparalleled liveliness and precision. Tulips, the world's first speculative project and the trigger of Europe's first great stock market crash, are among his motifs, as are simple loaves of bread, slain animals and musical instruments made of polished wood. The extreme discipline in execution results in an overwhelming richness of meaning in his works. Some compositions literally overflow, others combine relatively few elements with a simple, caravagge-style dark background, against which the splendour of red lobsters, floured grapes and flashing silver cups stands all the more impressively.
Raised as the son of the almost equally famous still life painter David de Heem, he studied with Balthasar van der Ast and Daniel Seghers and moved to Leiden at the age of twenty, later to Antwerp and Utrecht. He and Rembrandt may have met in Leiden, but this is not certain.
He gave his knowledge to his two sons Cornelis de Heem and Jan Janszoon de Heem
who continued the tradition in The Hague and Antwerp. As with organ builders, craftsmen and even composers, it was nothing unusual for the workshop to be regarded as a kind of family business by the standards of the time; it was not individual authorship that was of decisive importance for the fame of a work complex, but the name of the workshop in which a painting had been made, since it stood for a certain quality achieved through secret methods and specific technical refinements. Similar to the unmatched vivid flesh tones from the workshop of an Peter Paul Rubens, it is no longer possible to reconstruct with certainty what is the secret of the extraordinary precision of Heem's still lifes; similar to Caravaggio's case, speculation exists that a camera obscura was used in conjunction with mirrors that projected a real-life arrangement similar to a modern beamer onto the prepared screen. This alone, however, cannot explain the astonishing closeness to life of the pictures; the magic of his works ultimately remains an untouchable secret.
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.jpg "A Vanitas Still Life with a Skull, a Book and Roses, c.1630 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Vase of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Flowers in a Glass Vase, c.1660 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "A Garland of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Parrot by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Peonies, Cherries and a Pocket Watch by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Books by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "A Pie on a Pewter Plate, a Partly Peeled Lemon, A Silver Spoon on a Pewter Plate, Crayfish and Shrimp in a Wanli Kraak Porcelain Bowl by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "A still life table dessert covered with dishes with musical instrument. Painting by Jan David Heem (1606-1684) 1640 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with a Lobster by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Communion cup and host, encircled with a garland of fruit by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Fruit and Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life of Fruit with a Lobster by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life, 1640 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Flowers in a Glass Vase by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Snails and Shells by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life, 17th Century by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life of Fruit and Flowers (detail) by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Flowers in a glass vase on a draped table, with a silver tazza, fruit, insects and birds by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-184386).jpg "Still Life with a Nautilus Cup, 1632 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Vanitas Still Life with a Skull, a Book and Roses by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Drinking Glass, Fruit and Roses by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Interior of a Room with a Man Seated at a Table, 17th Century by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Vase of Flowers, c. 1660 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Fruit Basket, Pumpkin, Melon, and Peaches by an Oak by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life of Fruit and Flowers with a Parrot on a Table Covered with a Green Cloth by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Breakfast Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "A Still Life of a Lobster and Fish on a Table by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still life with fruit and a glass à la façon de Venise, ca 1652 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "A Basket of Mixed Fruit with Gilt Cup, Silver Chalice, Nautilus, Glass and Peaches on a Plate by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1122100).jpg "Still Life of Fruit and Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life: A Banqueting Scene by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "The Flute of Wine by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Interior of a Room with a young Man seated at a Table by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life of Fruit by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with a Glass and Oysters, ca. 1640 by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Vanitas by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with a Roemer by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still life of food and musical instruments by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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_in_a_medallion_of_flowers_Painting_-_(MeisterDrucke-1023495).jpg "Portrait of William III of Orange in a Medallion of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Wine Glass by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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_Oil_on_canvas_-_(MeisterDrucke-1011109).jpg "Eucharist in Fruit Wreath by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Festoon of Fruit and Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Books by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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_Peinture_de_Jan_van_Heem_(1606-1_-_(MeisterDrucke-1011016).jpg "Still Life with Books by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Vase of Flowers by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Flowers and Fruit by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Breakfast Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1090637).jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Snails and Shells by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life of Flowers and Fruit by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life with Asparagus by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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.jpg "Still Life in a Barn by Jan Davidsz de Heem")
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