René Smoorenburg

During his successful career as a goldsmith the desire to paint grew on Dutch artist René Smoorenburg. The attention to detail, which was of great importance in his work as a goldsmith, proved of great value in painting his faithful still life’s.

His work stands in the long tradition of Dutch still life painting, originated in the seventeenth century, with its highly refined and meticulously executed depiction of reality. His work is in the spirit of many of those great works but retains its own distinctive style. 

In contrast to the masters of the Golden Age, he chooses to emphasize the vulnerability, fragility and imperfection of everyday objects in his still life’s. According to René Smoorenburg, beauty is not perfection, but in the trace of the past and the evidence of enduring ravages of time. 

René Smoorenburg finds his sources of inspiration at antique fairs and markets: worn shoes and clothes, glass bottles, bumped cups, a flower pot with a crack. What often does not receive extensive attention in daily life, an object that we would probably pass by, is overloaded with attention by René.

The result of his efforts is admired by many. In our hectic everyday life, René's works provide a moment of well-deserved relaxation and tranquility. René Smoorenburg invites you to take the time to take a closer look, take in the details, and witness the beauty of simplicity. His paintings are worlds in which the traces of the past are not erased but cherished, where the imperfect is considered perfect.