What is known is mainly derived from archival research, documents, and other sources which link him to specific times, places, and people, but there are no direct writings on him, except Houbraken and a small piece by Gerard de Lairesse.

[12] After his apprenticeship in the Netherlands, Willem Kalf moved to Paris around 1641, to the circle of the Flemish artists in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he presumably remained until the autumn of 1646.

[15][16] The fact that Willem Kalf acquired great fame in Paris was not only due to the enormous amount of genre scenes he painted.

[15] In October 1646 Kalf had returned to Rotterdam, but he did not stay there, because 5 years later his name appears in the marriage book for the city of Hoorn.

[10] The couple's marriage was celebrated by a verse by Vondel; his poem includes a brief description of Kalf's pronk still life paintings.

[17][4] Amsterdam was a thriving city, filled with painters, art dealers, and buyers at the time Willem Kalf came to live there.

[15][13] For example, as early as 1653, he was one of the experts to assess a painting by Paul Brit which was offered for sale by the Delft merchant Abraham van de Cooge.

[15] Another example is given by Bredius, who mentions that In 1686, together with the painters Job and Gerrit Berckheyde, Kalf gave evidence as an expert for a supposed Titian representing the "Matres.

[20] Kalf's rustic interiors are typically dominated by groups of vegetables, buckets, pots and pans, which he arranged as a still life in the foreground (e.g.

Though painted in Paris, those pictures belong to a pictorial tradition practiced primarily in Flanders in the early 17th century, by such artists as David Teniers the Younger.

[20] During the 1640s, Kalf further developed the banketje into a novel form of sumptuous and ornate still life (known as pronkstilleven), depicting rich groupings of gold and silver vessels.

[20] In his iconic later works painted in Amsterdam, Kalf focused on a series of still lifes of select, often repeated objects carefully placed against a dark background.

[20] Usually, a damask cloth or tapestry is draped upon a table on which there is tableware, with gold and silver vessels, many of which have been identified as work of specific goldsmiths, such as Johannes Lutma.

There are almost always Venetian-style goblets and a Chinese porcelain bowl from the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, often tilted so that half-peeled citrus fruits tumble out of it.

[20] However, de Lairesse writes that Kalf's primary intent was to create an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of luxurious items rather than instilling moralizing messages or specific meanings.

The Rotterdam artist Frans Rijckhals is named as a likely influence to Kalf's French period works due to similarities in color and style.

[20] The semi-monochrome still lifes which Kalf created in Paris form a link to the banketjes or 'little banquet pieces' painted by such Dutch artists as Pieter Claesz, Willem Claeszoon Heda and others in the 1630s.