Jasper Geeraards

Jasper Geerards, Jasper Geerardi or Jasper Geeraerts (c. 1620 – between 1649 and 1654) was a Flemish painter who specialized in still lifes and in particular pronkstillevens (ostentatious still lifes). He was active in Antwerp and Amsterdam.

Life Very little is known with certainty about the life of Geeraards. He is believed to have been born in Antwerp around 1620. He trained in Antwerp where he was registered as a pupil in the Guild of Saint Luke in 1634. It is possible, although there is no documentary evidence to support this assumption, that he studied for a while under the prominent Dutch still life painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem who settled in Antwerp in 1636. He became a master of the Guild in 1644.

His work shows him chiefly as a follower of Jan Davidsz. de Heem who may have been his teacher for a while. It was discovered during the restoration that it was a fragment of a big "pronkstilleven" (ostentatious still life) in the style of Jan Davidsz. de Heem of which parts on both sides and the top had been removed. It is likely that during earlier overpaintings of the original various elements where added to the painting such as the Delft vase and the two roses at the lower right, possibly to adapt the composition to then prevailing tastes.

His still lifes are signed with J or Jasper Geerards or Geerardi. It is not known when the painter adopted the name Geerardi, nor whether he used the two names alternately.