Still-Life with Fruit and Roemer

This painting depicts a tabletop still-life with large Roemer filled with wine, Berkemeyer lying on its side and fruit. It is a collaborative work by Pieter Claesz. and Roelof Koets, the only one signed and dated by both painters. The right-hand side with the apples, grapes and foliage was painted by Koets, the other parts by Claesz.

The two painters were friends, living in Haarlem. They testified several times together as witnesses in lawsuits. They produced ten collaborative paintings, dating between 1644 and 1653. In these paintings Koets’s hand can easily be distinguished: his sidelong lighting is more dramatic and more playful than that of Pieter Claesz., his foliage comes out stronger against a darker background, his oblong grapes are build up out of thin transparent layers.