Still Life of Fruit and Dead Fowl

Still Life of Fruit and Dead Fowl or A Stoneware jug, Fruit, and Dead Game Birds is a c. 1650 oil-on-panel still-life painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Harmen Steenwijck. It features dead birds which are meant to represent mortality and fruits which are meant to convey wealth. These place it between the "ontbijt" ("breakfast piece"), and explicit vanitas pieces.

Still Life of Fruit and Dead Fowl
Still Life of Fruit and Dead Fowl
ArtistHarmen Steenwijck
Yearc. 1650 (c. 1650)
MediumOil-on-panel
SubjectStill
Dimensions77.5 cm (30.5 in) × 102 cm (40 in)
LocationPrivate collection, Greenwich, Connecticut US

Steenwijck was a still-life specialist. Here the perishable luxury fruits convey wealth, contrasting with the beer, which is the drink of the masses.[1]

Analysis

The work is an oil-on-panel, and 77.5 cm (30.5 in) high and 102 cm (40 in) wide. It is in a private collection in Greenwich, Connecticut. In the image the table is piled high with fish, kitchen ware, fruit and birds.[2]

The table has a dark blue cloth. On the table in the background there is a stoneware jug, and a beer glass. Directly in front of the beer glass there are two dead songbirds. In front of the jug is a dead partridge with a blood stain. Vines of red and white grapes are in front of the jug and a branch of peaches is spilling off of the front of the table. The jug and one peach both sit on a wooden box. Soft light cuts from the left on an angle glistening on the glass, jug, fruit and feathers.[1][3]

Reception

Steenwijck was masterful in manipulating the primary colors. Steenwijck used pastel colors for the background items so that the featured items would be more prominent. The red of the partridge head rests against a pale yellow peach. The bulbous pears bear a similarity to the shape of the stoneware jug and the curve of the bird wings are repeated in the leaves of the fruit vines.[1]

See also

References
  1. Barnes, Donna R.; Rose, Peter G. (2002). Matters of Taste Food and Drink in Seventeenth-century Dutch Art and Life. Albany, New York: Albany Institute of History & Art. p. 55. ISBN 978-0815607472. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  2. Liedtke, Walter A. (2001). Vermeer and the Delft school. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 93. ISBN 9780870999734. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  3. Iotova, Raia (2014). Inspirational Paintings: Still Lifes. Brossard, Quebec: Osmora Incorporated. p. 30. ISBN 9782765906186.
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