Still Life with Fruit, a Lobster and Game
Oil Painting
late 17th century (painted)
late 17th century (painted)
| Artist/Maker |
On a stone table, partially draped with a dark cloth, stands a roemer filled with white wine and a large porcelain bowl filled with peaches, apricots, pears and grapes whose long vines arch over the glass. In front of the glass, a pewter plate holds almonds and a partially peeled lemon whose curling rind unfurls over the table ledge, while on the table itself are a lobster (crayfish?), a loaf of bread, red grapes, a pomegranate, more peaches, plums and pears and five little birds. Michiel Simons is documented in Utrecht in 1669 and 1671 and died there 1673. Dated still lifes by his hand range from 1648-1657 although his recorded production is rare. In addition to fruit and flowers he pained game still lifes. Despite a certain Antwerp influence, Utrecht appears to dominate, particularly the influence of Ambrosius Bosschaert in the case of his fruit and flower paintings. 231-1879 is compositionally indebted to Jan Davidsz.de Heem while the palette recalls work by still life specialists in Utrecht such as Bosscahert. The roemer with white wine and the peeled lemon are common props in Dutch still life, and they are entirely natural companions, since in the seventeenth century it was customary to season wine with lemon. These two objects offered painters a wonderful opportunity to showcase their ability to render disparate surfaces, they would juxtapose the transparent, reflective glass and the delicate colour of the drink with the coarse and shiny skin of the citrus fruit and its glassy interior. Similarly, this artist has carefully described how flecks of light fall on the blackberry knops on the stem of the glass. The birds on the far right should be considered within the tradition of 'game pieces' representing animals, either dead or alive, the hunting of which was the privilege of the highest-ranking members of society. While southern artists would often represent the larger game animals hunted in the enormous woodlands in the south, northern artists would often depict the smaller game animals who lived in the dunes and marshes of the Netherlands, including the many species of bird who passed through along their migratory route.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Title | Still Life with Fruit, a Lobster and Game (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil painting, 'Still Life with Fruit, a Lobster and Game', Michiel Simons, 17th century |
| Physical description | On a stone table, partially draped with a dark cloth, stands a roemer filled with white wine and a large porcelain bowl filled with peaches, apricots, pears and grapes whose long vines arch over the glass. In front of the glass, a pewter plate holds almonds and a partially peeled lemon whose curling rind unfurls over the table ledge, while on the table itself are a lobster (crayfish?), a loaf of bread, red grapes, a pomegranate, more peaches, plums and pears and five little birds. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'M. ...mons' [?] (Barely legible and partially obscured on far right edge of table. Signature recorded in Conservation Report by Hazel Jackson in 1996.
A Similar inscription appears on the table of a Simons picture Stilleven met vruchten en kreeft ca. 1670 in the Centraal Museum Utrecth (inv. nr. 6570)) |
| Object history | Purchased, 1879 Historical significance: The signature just legible on the ledge at right suggests that this work is by Michiel Simons who is documented in Utrecht in 1669 and 1671 and died there 1673. He was probably a native of Utrecht but it is not known with whom he trained. Dated still lifes by his hand range from 1648-1657 although his recorded production is rare. In addition to fruit and flowers he pained game still lifes. Despite a certain Antwerp influence, Utrecht appears to dominate, particularly the influence of Ambrosius Bosschaert in the case of his fruit and flower paintings. 231-1879 is compositionally indebted to Jan Davidsz.de Heem while the palette recalls work by still life specialists in Utrecht such as Bosscahert. The roemer with white wine and the peeled lemon are common props in Dutch still life, and they are entirely natural companions, since in the seventeenth century it was customary to season wine with lemon. These two objects offered painters a wonderful opportunity to showcase their ability to render disparate surfaces, they would juxtapose the transparent, reflective glass and the delicate colour of the drink with the coarse and shiny skin of the citrus fruit and its glassy interior. Similarly, this artist has carefully described how flecks of light fall on the blackberry knops on the stem of the glass. The birds on the far right should be considered within the tradition of 'game pieces' representing animals, either dead or alive, the hunting of which was the privilege of the highest-ranking members of society. While southern artists would often represent the larger game animals hunted in the enormous woodlands in the south, northern artists would often depict the smaller game animals who lived in the dunes and marshes of the Netherlands, including the many species of bird who passed through along their migratory route. |
| Historical context | The term 'Still life' 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 as a collective name for this type of subject matter. Still-life reached the height of its popularity in Western Europe, especially in the Netherlands, during the 17th century although still-life subjects already existed in pre-Classical, times. As a genre, this style originates in the early 15th century in Flanders with Hugo van der Goes (ca.1440-1482), Hans Memling (ca.1435-1494) and Gerard David (ca.1460-1523) who included refined still-life details charged with symbolic meaning in their compositions in the same manner as illuminators from Ghent or Bruges did in their works for decorative purpose. In the Low Countries, the first types of still life to emerge were flower paintings and banquet tables by artists like Floris van Schooten (c.1585-after 1655). Soon, different traditions of still life with food items developed in Flanders and in the Netherlands where they became especially popular commodities in the new bourgeois art market. Dutch painters played a major role the development of this genre, inventing distinctive variations on the theme over the course of the century while Flemish artist Frans Snyders' established a taste for banquet pieces. These works were developed further in Antwerp by the Dutchman Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684) who created opulent baroque confections of fruit, flowers, and precious vessels that became a standardized decorative type throughout Europe. Scholarly opinion had long been divided over how all of these images should be understood. The exotic fruits and valuable objects often depicted testify to the prosperous increase in wealth in cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem but may also function as memento mori, or vanitas, that is, reminders of human mortality and invitations to meditate upon the passage of time. |
| Production | Catalogued in 1893 as 'Dutch, late 17th century.' This attribution repeated by Kauffmann in 1973. It is unclear when the signature was discovered although it is recorded in Conservation Report by Hazel Jackson in 1996. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | On a stone table, partially draped with a dark cloth, stands a roemer filled with white wine and a large porcelain bowl filled with peaches, apricots, pears and grapes whose long vines arch over the glass. In front of the glass, a pewter plate holds almonds and a partially peeled lemon whose curling rind unfurls over the table ledge, while on the table itself are a lobster (crayfish?), a loaf of bread, red grapes, a pomegranate, more peaches, plums and pears and five little birds. Michiel Simons is documented in Utrecht in 1669 and 1671 and died there 1673. Dated still lifes by his hand range from 1648-1657 although his recorded production is rare. In addition to fruit and flowers he pained game still lifes. Despite a certain Antwerp influence, Utrecht appears to dominate, particularly the influence of Ambrosius Bosschaert in the case of his fruit and flower paintings. 231-1879 is compositionally indebted to Jan Davidsz.de Heem while the palette recalls work by still life specialists in Utrecht such as Bosscahert. The roemer with white wine and the peeled lemon are common props in Dutch still life, and they are entirely natural companions, since in the seventeenth century it was customary to season wine with lemon. These two objects offered painters a wonderful opportunity to showcase their ability to render disparate surfaces, they would juxtapose the transparent, reflective glass and the delicate colour of the drink with the coarse and shiny skin of the citrus fruit and its glassy interior. Similarly, this artist has carefully described how flecks of light fall on the blackberry knops on the stem of the glass. The birds on the far right should be considered within the tradition of 'game pieces' representing animals, either dead or alive, the hunting of which was the privilege of the highest-ranking members of society. While southern artists would often represent the larger game animals hunted in the enormous woodlands in the south, northern artists would often depict the smaller game animals who lived in the dunes and marshes of the Netherlands, including the many species of bird who passed through along their migratory route. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 231-1879 |
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| Record created | March 6, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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