Still Life with Flowers, Fruit, a Great Tit and a Mouse

Unknown artist

Herman Henstenburg earned his living baking pies, the takeaway meal of the period. He painted his delightful watercolours of flowers, fruit and insects purely for pleasure. Henstenburg developed a special kind of watercolour paint that was so bright and powerful, a contemporary remarked that it rivalled oil paint. His superb still lifes were famous among collectors in his own day, and far beyond his hometown of Hoorn.