1612 -After 1656 · Delft, Leiden and still life of vanity

Discover Harmen Steenwijck, Dutch master of vanity, whose skulls, books, instruments and rays of light transform the precision of materials into meditation on time.

Born in Delft in 1612, Harmen Evertsz. Steenwijck trained in Leiden with his brother Pieter in the studio of their uncle David Bailly. Leiden was then one of the great centers of vanity still life, a genre which recalls the brevity of life and the fragility of earthly goods. Returning to work mainly in Delft, Harmen became one of its most accomplished representatives. His compositions bring together skull, books, watch, extinguished lamp, musical instrument, shell, weapon or precious vase. His compositions bring together skull, books, watch, extinguished lamp, musical instrument, shell, weapon or precious vase. Each object is painted with remarkable attention to texture: cold metal, worn paper, polished wood, satin or terracotta. The skull, the quenching smoke and the clock reverse the pleasure of the gaze in moral meditation. In the Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life kept at the National Gallery, a diagonal ray illuminates the skull and orders a pyramid of objects. Light is both a physical phenomenon and a spiritual sign. The exact dates of the end of his life remain uncertain; it is documented beyond 1656. His relatively narrow corpus is sometimes confused with that of Pieter Steenwijck or other specialists, which requires caution in attributions. The "Harmen Steenwijck" selection offers its own journey on this subject. His reading favors composition.

Steenwijck paints things to show that they pass: the more the metal, the book and the silk seem present, the more fragile the skull makes their duration.