Heda, Willem Claesz. (1594–1680)

Dutch painter. He concentrated on still lifes, depicting with great skill such objects as silver tankards, clay pipes, and wine glasses, usually set against a neutral background. He trained his son Gerrit Willemsz. Heda (1620–1670) in the same genre.

Along with Pieter Claesz., Heda was the most important exponent of the ontbijt, or ‘breakfast piece’. Heda's pictures, however, are more sensitive in execution and he had a more aristocratic taste in the objects he chose to represent, such as oysters rather than herrings and silver rather than pewter.