Search results

Start typing

Detail of a still life showing a laded table
Dutch Art

The Royal Collection has one of the finest holdings of seventeenth century Dutch paintings in the world

PIETER GERRITSZ VAN ROESTRATEN (HAARLEM C.1631-LONDON 1700)

A Vanitas

c.1666-1700

RCIN 402604

Roestraten studied in Haarlem with Frans Hals, his father-in-law, but by 1666 was living in London, where he is recorded as having been injured in the Great Fire. While in London he created a local version of the Dutch pronkstilleven ('still-life for show'), with prominence given to English silver and oriental ceramics.

In this vanitas still-life a skull, coins and a silver pocket watch on a silk ribbon relate to the transience of earthly pleasures, alongside a book open at a print of a laughing Democritus inscribed with the lines ‘Everyone is sick from birth / vanity is ruining the world’. Most intriguing is the suspended glass sphere, in which can be seen the distorted reflection of a room, including the tiny figure of an artist looking towards the viewer, and towards the skull and silver ginger jar, which are also included in the reflection. 


    The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.