Osias Beert

[1] He contributed in particular to the development of still lifes placed on table tops featuring festive culinary delights as well as of sumptuous floral bouquets, typically displayed in Wan Li vases.

[3] He married Margriet (or Margarita) Ykens on 8 January 1606. in 1622 the couple had a son, Osias Beert the younger, who became a master of the guild of St. Luke in 1645.

After his death, his widow Margriet Ykens had to sell the couple's furniture and paintings to pay a debt to the painter David Rijckaert II who had lent money to them to open their business.

[6] Beert was also a member of one of the local Chambers of rhetoric, which suggests he was involved in intellectual pursuits other than painting.

[4] Osias Beert is mainly known as a painter of flowers and banquet (breakfast) pieces, genres in which he played a pioneering role.

[5] Since knowledge about this early stage of the Flemish still life is still fragmentary there has been a tendency to attribute too many works to Beert.

[9] He was one of the first artists to specialize in still life painting when the production of works in this genre was still minor and typically anonymous.

[1] An example is Still life with cherries and strawberries in China bowls (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), which shows a banquet piece on a table that is slightly tilted so that the objects on it can be viewed without obstruction.

[10] He was known for his paintings of oysters and confectionery goods displayed orderly on tabletops together with precious wine glasses and Chinese porcelain.

[13] He collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens on at least one painting, Pausias and Glycera (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art).