Breakfast Still Life

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1647

Willem Claesz. Heda (Dutch, 1594-1680)

Willem Claesz. Heda’s still life may look like a snapshot of an abandoned meal, but the scene is carefully arranged, revealing the artist’s ability to create complex but harmonious compositions. Heda used the pewter chargers as horizontal elements in the foreground and the glass vessels and salt-cellar as verticals in the background, with the overturned ewer positioned diagonally to connect the two planes. Faint creases in the tablecloth, plates hanging precariously off the table’s edge, and the window reflected on the pitcher’s surface demonstrate the artist’s observant eye as well as his virtuosity in handling paint. Executed in a limited palette of silvers, grays, and browns, this work is an example of the “tonal trend” in Dutch 17th-century painting.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Willem Claesz. Heda
Title: Breakfast 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.: 1647
Medium: Oil on panel
Inscriptions: Signed and dated on the bottom left corner of the white table cloth: HEDA 164[7]
Dimensions: 70 × 98 cm (27 9/16 × 38 5/8 in.); Framed: 69.9 × 97.8 × 7 cm (27 1/2 × 38 1/2 × 2 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Donald and Carol Asher
Reference Number: 2023.2779
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/257286/manifest.json

Graf Medem, Elley, Courland [this and the following according to 1937 catalogue, Galerie Hans Bammann; copy in curatorial object file]. With Galerie Hans Bammann, Düsseldorf, 1937. With Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1938. Possibly with Douwes Amsterdam, c. 1940 [this according to online lot entry for this object, Christie’s, Amsterdam, November 14, 1991]. Acquired by R. Dreesmann, Zeist; thence by descent within the family; Christie’s, Amsterdam, November 14, 1991, lot 174. Sold, private collection, London, to Johnny Van Haeften, Ltd, London, Mar. 20, 2008 [stock no. 4194]; sold, Donald and Carol Asher, Winnetka, IL, Mar. 27, 2008 [according to Van Haeften invoice no. 23723; copy in curatorial object file]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2023.

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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.

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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.

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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.