Oil painting, 'Still life with Peaches, Red grapes and a Walnut', Ernst Stuven, late 17th century

A still life with a two peaches and a bunch of red grapes on a red velvet cloth beside a split walnut atop a marble table

Purchased, 1859

Historical significance: This painting has been attributed, based on photographs only, to Ernst Stuven by Fred Meijer (verbal communication) in February 2010. Stuven (ca. 1657-1712) was born in Hamburg but worked in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. He was a pupil of Johannes Voorhoot and Willem van Aelst. Tellingly, 4728-1859 contains many of the conventional topoi in van Aelsts meal still lifes of the 1670s. Aelst became famous for his ornate still-lifes with fine glassware, precious silver goblets, fruit and flowers which are reknowned for their rendering of surfaces and are characterized by a bright, sometimes rather harsh colour scheme. He preferred sharply outlined forms and striking colour contrasts. The V&A work appears to imitate works such as Fish on a Pewter Plate and Two Glasses of 1679 (Basel Kunstmuseum, inv. no. 3) as both works depict a simple meal, presented in a soft light before a dark background, which are enhanced with a luxurious velvet tablecloth and marble tabletop, transforming it into an elegant banquet. Stuven however is less successful in differentiating between the various materials than van Aelst and his work has a ‘flatter’ appearance and blonder tonalities. The subtle and harmonious tonalities are typical of Northern or Dutch works in this period as opposed to a Flemish works which were generally more varied and vibrant in colour. The work appears to date to the period 1650-1700, in which colourful bouquets give way to ‘tonal’ compositions of a similar hue, tone and brightness. Similarly, the work demonstrates verisimilitude in the depiction of the fly and the marble table, which came to replace the simple grey stone table popular in earlier still life paintings, and an attention to the rendering of material, visible for example in the droplets of water on the leaves, the soft edge of the fabric and the browned edges of the leaves, giving an enhanced impression of naturalness.

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 existed earlier. 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.

Formerly attributed to Willem van Aelst (1893 Catalogue)

Ernst Stuven (ca. 1657-1712) was born in Hamburg but worked in The Netherlands. He was a pupil of Golden Age painter Willem van Aelst, who was famous for his ornate still-lifes with fine glassware, precious silver goblets, fruit and flowers. This painting was once attributed to van Aelst and reflects his influence in the use of sharply outlined forms and striking colour contrasts. However Stuven is less successful in rendering different materials and textures than van Aelst, giving his work a ‘flatter’ appearance.

4728-1859