Still Life with Fish

c. 1650 - c. 1670

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 74 cm × width 87 cm
outer size: depth 8.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, with ligated monogram, lower right, on the edge of the table: .AVB f.

Technical notes

Support The fine, plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. The original tacking edges have been flattened with the lining and extend to approx. 1.5 cm from the edges of the stretcher, where the lining canvas is visible. Cusping is apparent on all sides.
Preparatory layers The single, greyish ground extends up to the original tacking edges. It consists of white, earth and some black pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the original tacking edges. The composition was built up quite quickly and fluently in only a few layers, leaving the still life reserved in the background. There, thin brown brushstrokes, maybe of a first sketch or underpainting, are visible around the contours of the objects, as well as through the abraded paint in some areas, such as the fish. Many thicker highlights were used to suggest the forms of the objects and fish.
Erika Smeenk-Metz, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 13 March 2008
paint samples: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, nos. SK-A-25/1-2, 13 March 2008
technical report: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 13 March 2008

Condition

Fair. There are many small paint losses throughout. There are a few discoloured retouchings and dark residues of old varnish. The strongly yellowed varnish does not saturate in some areas.

Conservation

P. J. Thijs, 1799: canvas lined; revarnished
H. Heijdenrijk, 1906: canvas relined
H.H. Mertens, 1968: new wedges applied in the stretcher

Provenance

…; purchased for fl. 11 by Gerrit van der Pot (1732-1807), Lord of Groeneveld, Rotterdam, 8 December 1798;¹ his sale, Rotterdam (Gebr. Van Ryp), 6 June 1808 sqq., no. 15 (‘Hoog 27½, en breed 32 duim [71.5 x 83 cm]. D*. Eene Tafel, waarop eene Visben met Schelvisschen en eene moot Zalm; wijders Platvisschen, Mosselen en verder bijwerk […].’), fl. 25, to A.A. Stratenus, for the museum²

Object number: SK-A-25

The artist

Abraham van Beyeren (The Hague c. 1620/21 - Overschie 1690)

The first reference to Abraham van Beyeren, the son of a glazier from The Hague, dates from 1636, when he is mentioned as the 16-year-old pupil of Tymen Cracht, an otherwise unknown artist. He married Emmerentia Sterck, a citizen of The Hague, in Leiden in 1639, and registered as a master painter in his home town a year later. The first indications of his chronic financial woes are from 1646/47, when some of his furniture was sold at auction and a few dozen of his pictures came under the hammer at the annual sale of the Guild of St Luke in order to settle his debts. In 1647, after the death of his first wife, Van Beyeren married Anna van den Queborn, daughter of the printmaker and painter Crispijn van den Queborn and granddaughter of the court artist Daniel van den Queborn. He thus became related to the still-life painter Pieter de Putter, who was married to an aunt of Anna. Van Beyeren was one of the founders of Confrerie Pictura, the artists’ society established in The Hague in 1656. He moved to Delft, probably to escape his many creditors, and registered with the city’s Guild of St Luke in 1657. In 1663 he returned to The Hague and remained there until about 1668, when another auction of his works was held to pay off his debts. From 1669 to 1674 he was active in Amsterdam, in 1674 in Alkmaar, and from 1675 to 1677 in Gouda. During the last 13 years of his life he lived in Overschie, now a suburb of Rotterdam. His financial situation remained precarious, and in 1689 he auctioned another 54 paintings. He probably died in early 1690. His probate inventory was drawn up on 15 March 1690.

Abraham van Beyeren probably began his career as a marine painter. His monochrome depictions of small sailing boats in stormy weather betray the influence of Jan van Goyen and the Leiden School. They were probably made from the late 1630s until some time in the 1640s. His earliest signed and dated work in this genre is from 1641.³ At some stage Van Beyeren turned his hand to still lifes. His earliest one bearing the year of execution is from 1651,⁴ but a painting of mussels is documented in 1645. A 1649 votive tablet in the Groote Kerk of Maassluis includes figures, seascapes and fish, but it is not known whether Van Beyeren was solely responsible for it.⁵ His last dated picture is a banquet piece of 1667.⁶ No clear stylistic development can be discerned in Van Beyeren’s oeuvre, as it difficult to establish a chronology for his works and he did not adhere to one specific type of still life but switched intermittently between fish, game, flower and banquet pieces. Nothing at all is known about his output during the 70s and 80s, when he must still have been highly productive.

Erlend de Groot, 2022

References
F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], I, Rotterdam 1877-78, p. 45; ibid., II, 1879-80, p. 27; De Stuers in F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], II, Rotterdam 1879-80, p. 84; Bredius in ibid., III, 1880-81, p. 258; Bredius in ibid., IV, 1881-82, pp. 60, 135, 151; Moes in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, III, Leipzig 1909, p. 570; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, IV, The Hague 1917, pp. 1165-72; I. Blok, ‘Abraham van Beyeren’, Onze Kunst 17 (1918), pp. 113-21, 159-65; G.C. Helbers, ‘Abraham van Beyeren Mr. Schilder tot Overschie’, Oud Holland 45 (1928), pp. 27-28; A.P.A. Vorenkamp, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het Hollandsch stilleven in de zeventiende eeuw, diss. Leiden University 1933, p. 24; H.E. Van Gelder, W.C. Heda, A. van Beyeren, W. Kalf, Amsterdam 1941; G.C. Helbers, ‘Abraham van Beyeren te Gouda’, Oud Holland 62 (1947), p. 164; J.M. Montias, Artists and Artisans in Delft: A Socio-Economic Study of the Seventeenth Century, Princeton 1982, p. 346; S.A. Sullivan, ‘Abraham van Beijerens Visserij-bord in de Groote Kerk, Maassluis’, Oud Holland 101 (1987), pp. 115-25; Erbentraut in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, X, Munich/Leipzig 1995, pp. 346-48; Meijer in E. Buijsen et al., Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw: Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag 1600-1700, exh. cat. The Hague (Haags Historisch Museum) 1998-99, pp. 96-103, 268; A. Chong and W.T. Kloek (eds.), Still-Life Paintings from the Netherlands 1550-1720, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 1999-2000, p. 290; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, pp. 33-34

Entry

The composition of this fish piece is dominated by two incised haddock in a basket, uneasily draped over a fillet of salmon. They are depicted back to back, creating an interesting undulating pattern, and are accompanied in the basket by flatfish (plaice or flounders), shown from the front and the back. There are some more flatfish and several mussels on the plain wooden table. A knife balances precariously on its edge, about to slide off. A jug, a bucket with iron hoops and a hook to lower it into the canal or river complete the scene.⁷ Abraham van Beyeren often painted the same fish and fillets in very similar positions. The contexts varied: sometimes there is a fishmonger behind the table or a view of the beach, sometimes we only get to see the table against a plain dark background.⁸ Among the characteristic details of the artist’s works – though not present in this picture - are the graphically rendered fish entrails: pinkish haddock livers which contrast with dark ones hanging over the rim of a bucket.

Van Beyeren painted fish still lifes throughout his career, beginning about 1645. As there is little stylistic difference between the ones dated earliest and last,⁹ it is impossible to offer anything more than a rough estimate of the period the Rijksmuseum picture was made.¹⁰ Executed with broad brushstrokes, which merely suggest rather than define the shapes, it is certainly a fine example of the artist’s specific qualities in the genre. Note, especially, the red smudges smeared over the fish to indicate their bleeding. In combination with the sparkling white highlights they create an unmistakably fresh appearance. Still wet and slithery, the fish look as if they were caught only minutes ago.

Erlend de Groot, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, II, Lingen 1995, p. 93, no. 28/8

Collection catalogues

1809, p. 9, no. 34; 1843, p. 9, no. 34; 1853, p. 6, no. 29 (fl. 100); 1858, no. 18; 1880, pp. 46-47, no. 22; 1885, p. 4, no. 22; 1903, p. 49, no. 504; 1960, p. 39, no. 504; 1976, pp. 115-16, no. A 25

Citation

Erlend de Groot, 2022, 'Abraham van Beijeren, Still Life with Fish, c. 1650 - c. 1670', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026624

(accessed 8 December 2025 18:40:28).