Still Life

c. 1625

Pieter Claesz (Dutch, 1596/97–1660)

Around 1600 still life emerged as a significant subject in several European artistic centers, including the Dutch Republic. Pieter Claesz. was a leading painter of a type of still life often described as a “banquet piece,” which featured luxury foods and serving vessels, typically strewn across an elaborately dressed tabletop. These costly goods—like the lemon, olives, sweetmeats, and lace-edged damask tablecloth in this painting—were sometimes depicted in a state of decay to suggest the transitory nature of coveted earthly things. The well-preserved items here instead celebrate wealth and its lavish display.

Status: On View, Gallery 212
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Pieter Claesz
Title: Still Life
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1620–1630
Medium: Oil on panel
Inscriptions: Inscribed in ligature: PC (on knife blade)
Dimensions: 48 × 76.9 cm (18 7/8 × 30 1/4 in.); Framed: 76.2 × 108.8 × 7 cm (30 × 41 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Simeon B. Williams Fund
Reference Number: 1935.300
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/21682/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Report for the Year 1935 in Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 30, Part III (1936), pp. 23, ill., 36.
“Condition: Excellent,” Worcester Art Museum News Bulletin and Calendar 16 (1951) p. 25 (ill).
Ingvar Bergström, Dutch Still-life Painting in the Seventeenth Century, London, 1956, pp. 118, 305.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 78 (ill.), p. 186.
N. R. A. Vroom, De schilders van het monochrome banketje (Amsterdam, 1945), pp. 17-18, 198, no. 19, fig. 5.
N. R. A. Vroom, A Modest Message as intimated by the painters of the ‘Monochrome Banketje’ vol. 1 (Schiedam, 1980), pp. 89-91, fig. 119.
Alberto Veco, Simposio: cerimonie e apparati, exh. cat., Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo, 1983, p. 176.
Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986), p. 52.
Claus Grimm, Stilleben. Die niederländischen und deutschen Meister (Stuttgart and Zurich, 1988), p. 108, figs. 53, 54.
Walter S. Melion, Shaping the Netherlandish Canon: Karel van Mander’s Schilder-boeck (Chicago, 1991), pp. 73-74, fig. 62 (ill.).
Pamela Hibbs Decoteau, Clara Peeters, 1594 - ca. 1640 (Freren, 1992), pp. 157-158, fig. 61.
Anna-Elisabeth Theuerkauff-Liederwald, Venezianisches Glas der Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg. Die Sammlung Herzog Alfreds von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1844-1900) (Lingen, 1994), p. 312, fig. 66.
Erika Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, vol. 2, Lingen, 1995, p. 227, no. 76/2, ill. p. 228.
Sybille Ebert-Schifferer, Die Geschichte des Stillebens, Munich, 1998, pp. 122-123, fig. 87.
M. Brunner-Bulst, “Claesz. (Claessen), Pieter” in Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, vol. 19, Munich and Leipzig, 1998, p. 354.
Martina Brunner-Bulst in Johnny Van Haeften Gallery, Dutch and Flemish Old Master Paintings (London, 1999), n.p., under no. 3, ill.
Martina Brunner-Bulst, Pieter Claesz., der Hauptmeister des Haarlemer Stillebens im 17. Jahrhundert (Lingen, 2004), pp. 150, 208, no. 6, ill.
Fred G. Meijer, review of Brunner-Bulst, Pieter Claesz. der Hauptmeister des Haarlemer Stillebens im 17. Jahrhundert and Pieter Biesboer et al., Pieter Claesz, Master of Haarlem Still Life in Oud Holland 120 (2007), p. 139.

Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, “Condition; Excellent,” March - April 1951, cat. 8.

Probably Cassirer, Amsterdam [the mounts of photos in both the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, and the Witt Library, London, are marked Cassirer, Amsterdam, 1939, though the picture was at the Art Institute from late 1935; the Witt photo is also annotated “Worcester, Mass.”; see also Vroom 1945 and Bergstrom 1956]. M. Knoedler & Co., New York by 1935 [receipt dated September 9, 1935 in Registrar’s office; the number A 1559 printed on a label on the back may be the Knoedler’s stock number]; sold to the Art Institute, 1935.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

On View

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

Explore Further

Suggested Terms

See all hours

On View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.