Fruit piece with lemons, grapes, plums and cherries
Oil Painting
ca. 1650 (painted)
ca. 1650 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684) was born in Utrecht but trained in Leyden before settling in the early 1630s in Antwerp. He returned to Utrecht quite often and had there a workshop with collaborators and pupils, the most famous being Abraham Mignon. Two of his son also became painters: Cornelis de Heem and Jan Jansz. de Heem.
This painting is a good example of Jan Davidsz. de Heem's still life's production, a genre painting that he began to execute in Leyden and developed chiefly in Antwerp from the 1640s onwards. This fruit-piece is a good example of his production of still-life subjects that also include vanitas still-lifes and flower-pieces. It shows an arrangement of fruits from a relatively close point of view that may results from the cutting of the original picture. The elements are indeed cut in the middle along the edges, a compositional idea that de Heem never followed. At the contrary, he used to contain his pieces in the centre of the canvas. The contrast provided by the dark background makes the colours of the lemons, the grape, the plums and the cherries more intense albeit the artist employed a quite restrained tonal palette. The fruit are depicted with an extraordinary mastery in the rendering of the texture along with a glittering effect of light. This painting can be compared with a similar relatively simple and sober composition housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen and dated around 1651.
This painting is a good example of Jan Davidsz. de Heem's still life's production, a genre painting that he began to execute in Leyden and developed chiefly in Antwerp from the 1640s onwards. This fruit-piece is a good example of his production of still-life subjects that also include vanitas still-lifes and flower-pieces. It shows an arrangement of fruits from a relatively close point of view that may results from the cutting of the original picture. The elements are indeed cut in the middle along the edges, a compositional idea that de Heem never followed. At the contrary, he used to contain his pieces in the centre of the canvas. The contrast provided by the dark background makes the colours of the lemons, the grape, the plums and the cherries more intense albeit the artist employed a quite restrained tonal palette. The fruit are depicted with an extraordinary mastery in the rendering of the texture along with a glittering effect of light. This painting can be compared with a similar relatively simple and sober composition housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen and dated around 1651.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Fruit piece with lemons, grapes, plums and cherries (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil Painting, 'Fruit Piece with Lemons, Grapes, Plums and Cherries', attributed to Jan Davidsz. de Heem, ca. 1650. |
| Physical description | A still-life with lemons, grapes, plums, cherries and insects depicted from a close point of view on a dark background. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by John M. Parsons |
| Object history | Bequeathed by John M. Parsons, 1870. John Meeson Parsons (1798-1870), art collector, was born in Newport, Shropshire. He later settled in London, and became a member of the stock exchange. His interest in railways led to his election as an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1839, and he was director or chairman of two railway companies between 1843 and 1848. Much of his time however was spent collecting pictures and works of art. In his will he offered his collection of mostly German and Dutch schools to the National Gallery (which selected only three works) and to the Department of Science and Art at South Kensington, later the Victoria and Albert Museum. The South Kensington Museum acquired ninety-two oil paintings and forty-seven watercolours. A number of engravings were also left to the British Museum. Historical significance: The original attribution to Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1893 Catalogue, p. 179) cannot be upheld with certainty, but nor can it be excluded on grounds of quality. Its style seems characteristic of his synthesis between the sober exactitude of Dutch still-life painters and the more exuberant Flemish Baroque.The broad handling, combined with the overflowing character of the composition, suggests that it may have been cut out of a larger painting. |
| Historical context | Still-life reached the height of its popularity in Western Europe, especially in Netherlands, during the 17th century. The term conventionally refers to works depicting an arrangement of diverse inanimate objects, including fruits, flowers, shellfish, vessels and artefacts. The term derives from the Dutch stilleven, which became current from about 1650 onwards as a collective name for this type of subject matter. Opinion is divided over how these images should be understood. The exotic fruits and valuable objects depicted testify to the wealth of such cities such as Amsterdam, but may also function as memento mori or vanitas, reminders of human mortality, inviting the viewer to meditate upon the passage of time Jan Davidsz de Heem was born in Utrecht, trained in Leyden, and around 1636 settled in Antwerp, where he developed a popular line in still-life paintings. Joachim von Sandrart in his Teutsche Academie, published in 1675, reports that de Heem moved to Antwerp because 'there one can have the rare fruits including all manner of large plums, peaches, apricots, sour oranges, lemons, grapes, and other, in better quality and ripeness, (so as to) to reproduce them from life'. His large, sumptuous still-lifes of the 1640s made a profound impression, encouraging many Netherlandish painters to imitate his work. In Utrecht, Leyden and Antwerp he had many followers. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684) was born in Utrecht but trained in Leyden before settling in the early 1630s in Antwerp. He returned to Utrecht quite often and had there a workshop with collaborators and pupils, the most famous being Abraham Mignon. Two of his son also became painters: Cornelis de Heem and Jan Jansz. de Heem. This painting is a good example of Jan Davidsz. de Heem's still life's production, a genre painting that he began to execute in Leyden and developed chiefly in Antwerp from the 1640s onwards. This fruit-piece is a good example of his production of still-life subjects that also include vanitas still-lifes and flower-pieces. It shows an arrangement of fruits from a relatively close point of view that may results from the cutting of the original picture. The elements are indeed cut in the middle along the edges, a compositional idea that de Heem never followed. At the contrary, he used to contain his pieces in the centre of the canvas. The contrast provided by the dark background makes the colours of the lemons, the grape, the plums and the cherries more intense albeit the artist employed a quite restrained tonal palette. The fruit are depicted with an extraordinary mastery in the rendering of the texture along with a glittering effect of light. This painting can be compared with a similar relatively simple and sober composition housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen and dated around 1651. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 552-1870 |
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| Record created | July 6, 2006 |
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