Clara Peeters (baptized May 15, 1594, Antwerp, died after 1657) was a Flemish still-life painter active in the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic. One of the few professional women artists of the seventeenth century, she specialized in "ontbijtjes" (breakfast pieces) and "banketjes" (banquet pieces), contributing to the development of Netherlandish still-life traditions despite restrictions on women’s access to guilds and formal training.
Peeters’ work features meticulous brushwork, a low vantage point, and precise rendering of textures, metal, glass, ceramic, and foodstuffs. She was the first to incorporate self-portraiture into still lifes, embedding tiny reflections of herself in polished surfaces, a technique later adopted by artists like Willem Claesz Heda. Her compositions often juxtapose luxury objects (goblets, silverware) with perishable items (fish, bread, flowers).
Though her documented career spans 1607–1621, Peeters’ influence persisted in Dutch Golden Age still-life painting. The Prado Museum’s 2016 retrospective was the first solo exhibition dedicated to a female painter in its history, highlighting her role in the Baroque period.
