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Seventeenth-Century Interior

A work made of oil on canvas.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1877

Artist:

Charles Gifford Dyer
American, 1846–1912

About this artwork

Chicagoan Charles Gifford Dyer studied painting in Paris and Munich. The objects depicted in this canvas, such as the Chinese blue-and-white vase and Oushak Turkish lotto rug, were likely collected during his extensive travels and represent the tastes of a worldly, wealthy man. The painting recalls 17th-century Dutch compositions in its focus on surfaces, textures, and illusionism. Like moralistic Dutch still life paintings, it evokes the fleetingness of life (vanitas) by juxtaposing objects that quickly decay, such as fruit and flowers, with the enduring arts of literature and music. The crisscross pattern of the parquet floor and the draped rug create spatial depth, offering a portrait of the Gilded Age, a time when an expanding economy encouraged the rich to collect such treasures.

Status

On View, Gallery 175

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Charles Gifford Dyer

Title

Seventeenth-Century Interior

Place

Munich (Place depicted)

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.

1877

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed, l.l.: "CHARLES G. DYER: MUNICH 1877."

Dimensions

94 × 71.1 cm (37 × 28 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Estate of Henry W. King

Reference Number

1902.227

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/39954/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

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.

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