A "New" Dutch Master

Breakfast Still Life With Glass and Metalwork, about 1637-39, Jan Jansz den Uyl

I am not, as a general rule, a big fan of the Dutch Masters, with a few well-noted exceptions. I did however discover the most amazing artist at the MFA that I knew nothing about and now I am completely smitten. His name is Jan Jansz den Uyl, 1596-1640 (about). Even though in his day he was a very well-known artist, today he's pretty much unknown which really isn't all that surprising, given the powerhouse of talent that period yielded. It would be virtually impossible to know everyone who was working in Holland at that time. Still, this man was a master of the ultra-realistic still life and I am still blown away by the detail he could recreate on linen. I could barely wrench myself away from his work.

Very little is known about him and even his birth and death dates are speculative. He's known for painting owl figures within his works, as his name means "owl" in Dutch. But try to find many images of his work and you'll come up short, which is too bad. I'd like to see much more of Jan den Uyl's work, and not just the plethora of "oil painting reproductions" available on endless websites. This brilliant man deserves more notice than that. Still, I consider myself very lucky to have one of his works close by where I can view it whenever the mood strikes me, and frankly now that I've gotten a taste of him, that might be fairly often.

Photo of Breakfast Still Life With Glass and Metalwork, about 1637-39, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.