P. S. Potter painted on glass and was the manager of a gilded leather establishment at Amsterdam. His model was Hals. Besides portraits and landscapes, his preference was for still life. The Straw Cutter and Still Life (signed and dated 1646) are worthy of attention.
Two Pictures by Heem of Utrecht.—Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-84) of Utrecht was a son of David de Heem, so famous for his déjeuners spread with game, oysters, lobsters, fruits, wine, china, glass, and silver. Jan inherited his father's tastes, and much of his talent, as is evidenced by two pictures in the Rijks. One shows flowers and fruits of natural size; and the other represents a table on which are a cup, a glass, and a vase of wrought silver loaded with fruits.
Gréville on his Style.—"At Antwerp, under Seghers, he enriched his palette and learned the art of composing a delicious harmony by setting flowers and fruits and glass and silver vases on an Oriental table-cloth. To the most minute exactitude and almost microscopic details, he added the most brilliant coloring and an unfailing taste in the arrangement of his flowers and still life."
Pieter de Ring.—A picture of a table covered with blue velvet and spread with lobsters, oysters, bread, fruit, etc., is typical of the work of Pieter de Ring (1615-60), one of De Heem's pupils, a Fleming, who spent his whole life in Holland, and was noted for his picturesque arrangement and fine execution.
Hans Boulengier has a flower piece signed 1625. He painted still life, genre, and sometimes "fantasmagories." Little is known about him.
Still-life Painters in the Latter Half of the Seventeenth Century.—A generation later this school was in full blossom. Pictures of fruits, flowers, and dead game, by artists who flourished in the second half of the seventeenth century, are fairly plentiful.
Abraham Hendricksz van Beyeren (1620-74) painted with fine composition and strong color breakfast pictures in the style of David de Heem, and delighted in portraying fish as in the Rijks example.
Cornelis Brisé (1622-7-) painted portraits; this gallery possesses one of his pictures of flowers, signed C. Brisé, 1665. On the wall beside it hangs another flower piece by the brush of Elias van Broeck (?-1708).
De Snuffelaer.—Otto Marseus van Schrieck (1619-78) was nicknamed De Snuffelaer (the ferreter), by the Dutch art colony in Rome, because of his frequent country walks to discover new plants, insects, and reptiles as models for his compositions. He painted with wonderful finish, good drawing, and truth to nature, as may be seen in his Insects, Lizards, etc., here signed O. M. V. S.
Jacob Marrel (1614-81) has a flower piece signed and dated 1634. Among other masters in Utrecht, Frankfort, Brussels, and Antwerp, he studied with J. D. de Heem.