Abraham van Calraet

Abraham van Calraet or Kalraat (7-12 October 1642, Dordrecht - 11 June 1722, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver.

Life, Biography of Abraham van Calraet

His father was a sculptor and sent his son to the Huppe brothers, who were well-known sculptors of Dordrecht. However, shortly after, or perhaps at the same time, Abraham began painting. Calraet sometimes helps his father with sculpture, but eventually chooses to paint.

It is very likely that Abraham was also his student, as his father brought in another son, Barend, to be tutored by Aelbert Cuyp. Living in Dordrecht, the painter worked in Dordrecht all his life and also painted landscapes.

Abraham van Calraet or Kalraat for many years several beautiful still life paintings by AC have been attributed to Aelbert Cuyp. Almost all are subject to peaches, beautifully painted peaches, usually on a Delft or Chinese porcelain plate, surrounded by grapes, butterflies, and sometimes shells and cherries on the paintings. Three of these still life paintings are in the Rotterdam Museum; The most beautiful of these AC pictures, with a gorgeous lobster next to peaches, is in Jonkheer van Lennep's collection in Heemstede, near Haarlem.

He married Anna Bisschop, daughter of painter Cornelis Bisschop, on July 7, 1680. They had five children, at least three of whom died young.

Style of Abraham van Calraet

Art movement is Baroque. He is a painter and wood sculptor who produces still lifes with fruits, species, portraits and animals such as horses and cattle. He painted all kinds of four-legged animals in life-size, especially horses. He was first and foremost an animal painter and landscaper, but he also produced a large number of still lifes. Calraet is known today for fruity still life pieces and, more recently, for equestrian landscapes.
A very moderate dark painting, applied with a wide brush and transforming the various textures of his objects into color, light and shadow, is typical of the artist's painting style. Light is used to highlight a narrow area of the composition, to counter the shady and often very dark surrounding area of fruit pieces, primarily peaches. The harsh shadows produced by the fruit in this way add a certain drama to Calraet's works.
A very characteristic feature of Calraet's compositions is the velvety appearance of his peaches, whose soft, downy surface appears deceptively real and appeals to the tactile sense of the beholder. The painter's attention is entirely focused on these peaches, where he also hides the strongest colors, vibrant reds and yellows.

Because of the same monograms by the artists, a large number of Calraet's paintings were mistakenly assigned to Aelbert Cuyp. Only Abraham Bredius succeeded in removing Calraet's paintings from Cuyp's works and placing them in an autonomous working group. His works are currently on display at the Dulwich Picture Gallery London and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Famous Paintings and Important Works of Abraham van Calraet

Fishing on the Ice, Scene on the Ice outside Dordrecht, The Interior of a Stable, A Boy holding a Gray Horse

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