HEDA, Willem Claasz, Dutch painter, born at Haarlem it is said in 1594, and still living there in 1668, was one of the earliest Dutchmen who devoted himself exclusively to the painting of still life. He was the contemporary and comrade of Dirk Hals, with whom he had in common pictorial touch and technical execution. But Heda was more careful and finished than Hals, and showed considerable skill and not a little taste in arranging and colouring chased cupβ and beakers and tankards of precious and inferior metals. Nothing is so appetizing as his “luncheon,” with rare comestibles set out upon rich plate, oysters,— seldom without the cut lemon,—bread, champagne, olives, and pastry. Even the commoner “refection” is also not without charm, as it comprises a cut ham, bread, walnuts, and beer. One of Heda’s early masterpieces, dated 1623, in the Munich Pinakothek is as homely as a later one of 1651 in the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna. A more luxurious repast is a Luncheon in the Augsburg Gallery, dated 1644. Most of Heda’s pictures are on the Continent, notably in the galleries of Paris, Parma, Ghent, Darmstadt, Gotha, Munich, and Vienna. He was a man of repute in his native city, and filled all the offices of dignity and trust in the guild of Haarlem. He seems to have had considerable influence in forming the younger Frans Hals.