National Gallery of Art

Biography

Little information exists concerning the life of Gerret (or Gerrit) Heda. The earliest document to mention the painter is an entry dated 7 July 1642 in the register of the Saint Luke's Guild of Haarlem. In it, Willem Claesz. Heda affirms that his second son, Gerret, Maerten Boelema (d. after 1664), and Hendrik Heerschop (1620/21-after 1672) are his pupils. Assuming that Gerret entered his father's workshop as a pupil in his early to mid-teens, it is likely that he was born in the 1620s. His death date is not known, but it probably occurred sometime between 1658, when a Gerrit Heda is listed as an active member of the St. Luke's Guild, and 1661, for he is not named along with his other siblings in a will made by his parents in that year. It is certainly earlier than 1702 when he is listed as dead in a compilation of past members of the guild.

In style and ability Gerret Heda compares closely to his father and it has at times been difficult to distinguish between the two. Gerret made copies of some of his father's breakfast scenes while he was a member of the workshop. His independent breakfast pieces, which can approach the quality of his father's compositions, are often signed simply HEDA . [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]

Bibliography

1956

Bergström, Ingvar. Dutch Still-Life Painting in the Seventeenth Century. Translated by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor. London, 1956: 136-140.

1980

Vroom, Nicolaas Rudolph Alexander. A Modest Message. 2 vols. Schiedam, 1980.

1988

Segal, Sam. A Prosperous Past. Ed. William Jordan. Exh. cat. Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge; Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth. The Hague, 1988: 133-136.

1995

Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 95-96.