Abraham van Beijeren

Anna's aunt was married to Pieter de Putter, a painter of fish still lifes.

These were not very well paid at the time and the relative poverty of van Beijeren may explain his frequent moves from one place to another.

[4] Van Beijeren signed his canvases with the monogram AVB and invariably failed to include a date.

While in the 1640s most of his paintings were seascapes, van Beijeren began to develop as a skilled still life painter of fish.

[4] In the 1650s and 1660s he started to focus on pronkstillevens, i.e. still lifes with fine silverware, Chinese porcelain, glass and selections of fruit.

Van Beijeren was likely familiar with the other Dutch painters of pronkstillevens such as Pieter Claesz and Willem Claeszoon Heda who were specialists in monochrome banquet still lives.

He often worked on a larger scale than his Dutch contemporaries with his tall canvasses reaching a height of one meter.