Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels - Famous Paintings and their Hidden Histories–Autumn 2025

Artist and art teacher Áine Andrews returns with another series of lectures on Famous Paintings and their Hidden Histories. In each lecture, Áine will focus on a particular painting to recount its history, as well as that of the artist and their story.

The lectures can be attended as a series, but are also designed as standalone talks, which can be attended individually.

Week 3: Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels

Clara Peeters 1615

The Mauritshuis the Hague

In 2012, the Mauritshuis in The Hague managed to acquire a particularly appealing painting by Clara Peeters.

In Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, Peeters captures the different ages of the cheeses and reflections in glass and metal. The handle of a finely crafted silver knife is directed towards the viewer as if inviting them to carve into the cheese but Peeters uses it also to sign her name in capitals on the side of the elaborately decorated handle.

There is also another astonishing detail. A minute self-portrait in a white cap is reflected in the pewter lid of a ceramic jug behind the cheeses. The portrait proclaims the worthiness not only of being a painter, but of being a woman painter.

We know little about the life of Clara Peeters, but there are some forty known paintings by this extraordinary skilled artist who had such great influence on the painters of the Northern Netherlands.

1. Tues 28 October
Portrait of Hugh Lane by John Singer Sargent – Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane Dublin

2. Tues 4 November
The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso – Tate Gallery London

3. Tues 18 November
Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels by Clara Peeters – The Mauritshuis the Hague

4. Tues 25 November
The Birth of Venus by Botticelli – Uffizi Gallery Florence

5. Tues 2 December
The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio – National Gallery of Ireland Dublin

6. Tues 9 December
Nativity Window by Evie Hone – Manresa – Jesuit Centre of Spirituality Dublin