Cornelis Mahu

(Antwerp 1613–1689)
A still life with fruit and a boiled lobster,
signed and dated lower right: C·M·HV/166.,
oil on panel, 43 x 62 cm, framed

Cornelis Mahu was a Flemish artist, who was influenced by the Dutch painter Willem Claesz. Heda and his circle. For some time, Mahu even worked in Heda’s studio in Haarlem. The artist specialised in Banketje paintings, sea- and landscapes. Notably, his oeuvre is quite small: Edith Greindl listed 16 signed and partially dated paintings (1638, 1642 and 1648, see: E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de la nature morte au XVIIième siècle, Brussels 1956/1983). N. R. A. Vroom published 20 works, one of them dated 1644 (see: N. R. A. Vroom, A modest message as intimated by the painters of the ‘monochrome banketje’, Schiedam 1980). Mahu’s still lifes are not typically Flemish. Their composition and colours are reminiscent of prototypes developed by Heda and, quite obviously, they belong to the school of Haarlem. In his later years Cornelis Mahu was further influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem and his circle.