Still Life

c. 1660 - 1690

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 57 cm × width 52.5 cm × thickness 3.9 cm (support incl. protective backboard)
outer size: depth 7.8 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

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

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been removed. Cusping is vaguely visible on all sides. A piece of canvas at the top of the support as shown in an X-radiograph of 1951 is no longer present.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the current edges of the support. The first, brown layer contains coarse lumps of lead white and earth particles, and some fine-grained, black pigment particles. The second, much thinner ground is a warm white consisting primarily of coarse lead white particles and some ochre particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the current edges of the support. An initial lay-in, swiftly executed with translucent yellowish-brown brushstrokes, provides the mid-tones. The composition was built up from the back to the front, leaving reserves for the objects. For the modelling of the glasses the yellowish-brown glaze and bright white highlights were used, the latter partially showing through the oysters. A warm grey serving as a mid-tone, the material of the shell and the wet oyster were suggested by adding some touches of dark paint and white scumbles in different grades of transparency. The silver plate was rendered with some black, umber and ochre-coloured touches on a brown paint, and some red earth was used for the reflection of the orange. The highlights were added next with off-white, fluid brushstrokes with opaque clots of bright, pure lead white on top. The bright orange was obtained through the combination of several different yellow and red pigments, probably lead-tin yellow and possibly realgar mixed with red and yellow lakes. The tablecloth was painted over the ground with a thin, light grey layer containing lead white and fine, black pigment particles. The next layer is a dark purplish grey consisting of small amounts of brilliant red pigment particles, red lake and fine, black pigment particles covered with a red lake.
Erika Smeenk-Metz, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

X-radiography: RMA, no. 513, 24 January 1951
paint samples: A. Wallert, RMA, nos. R 53/1-4, 1999
paint samples: A. Wallert, RMA, no. R 53/1 (SEM-EDX), 1999
infrared photography: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 19 May 2008
technical report: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 19 May 2008

Literature scientific examination and reports

Hermens et al. in A. Wallert (ed.), Still Lifes: Technique and Style: The Examination of Paintings from the Rijksmuseum, Zwolle 1999, pp. 74-75, no. 9

Condition

Fair. Old retouchings stand out as glossy spots without craquelures. Discoloured retouchings appear on the grapes, the right contour of the rummer and the wine glass. Areas of discoloured overpaint cover the damage on the right side of the bread and in the upper right background. The paint surface is slightly abraded throughout. Residues of old, darkened varnish are visible in the depths of the weave pattern. The thick varnish has yellowed somewhat.

Conservation

conservator unknown: glue lining removed; canvas relined with wax resin
L. Sozzani, 1991: varnish and overpaints reduced; a dent in the area around the bread flattened and the paint there consolidated; paint loss in the bread filled and retouched; revarnished

Provenance

…; ? sale, Dowager Countess André Mniszech, Paris (H. Baudoin), 10 May 1910, no. 23 (‘Le Vidrecome, 62 x 52 cm [size prior to restoration]’), fr. 6,000;…; the dealer Franz Kleinberger, Paris;¹ from whom purchased by Marczell de Nemes (1866-1930), Munich and Budapest, 1912;² his sale, Paris (F. Lair-Dubreuil et al.), 17 June 1913, no. 45, fr. 9,200;³…; sale, Federico Gentili di Giuseppe (1868-1940, Paris), Paris (E. Ader, Galerie Jean Charpentier), 5 April 1938, no. 26 (with size prior to restoration), fr. 35,000, to the dealer Delaunoy, Amsterdam;⁴…; the dealer Nathan Katz, Dieren and Basel, 1938; his sale, Paris (M. Rheims, Galerie Charpentier), 7 December 1950, no. 5, fr. 300,000, to the museum

Object number: SK-A-3828

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 1641.⁵ At some stage Van Beyeren turned his hand to still lifes. His earliest one bearing the year of execution is from 1651,⁶ 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.⁷ His last dated picture is a banquet piece of 1667.⁸ 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

Although it contains relatively few objects, this painting is as lavish in its arrangement and execution as any of Abraham van Beyeren’s sumptuous banquet pieces. Compared to a far larger example in the Rijksmuseum,⁹ fairly expensive pigments were used, such as red lakes and vermilion for the tablecloth and realgar for the orange.¹⁰ Van Beyeren’s remarkable skills can be seen, among others, in the dazzling shower of highlights covering the silver plate, seemingly applied without order, which creates a very lively impression. Built up in thin layers with loose brushstrokes, the individual objects were painted in a vigorous and conspicuously carefree manner. The artist seems to have been more concerned about the effects of light on reflecting surfaces than with the actual shape of every item. The bowl of the rummer does not sit on its stem properly, and the silver plate looks battered or misshapen. These deficiencies add to the charm of the scene. Although the composition is not overloaded with objects, it does appear slightly cramped. A former owner attempted to relieve the situation by adding a strip of canvas at the top, which was removed sometime after 1951.¹¹

Since the artist’s stylistic development is difficult to trace, any attempt to date the current work can only be highly tentative. Among the few clues we have is the façon de Venise glass on the right, which is identical to one in a large banquet piece from the 1650s.¹² The central part of the composition, the rummer and the silver plate, closely corresponds to a similar arrangement in Banquet Still Life with a Mouse of 1667.¹³ The application of the highlights on the silver and glass objects is virtually the same, which suggests that the Rijksmuseum picture may have been painted around the same time. Another indication that it is from the mid-1660s may be found in Van Beyeren’s use of more costly pigments,¹⁴ which may have been due to his improved financial situation in those years.¹⁵ According to Segal, oranges only began appearing in his repertoire after 1659, but we have too few dated paintings to confirm this.¹⁶ Matters are complicated by the fact that there is not a single work bearing the year of execution from between 1667 and Van Beyeren’s death in 1690, when he was active in Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Gouda and Overschie.¹⁷ Even assuming that the present canvas was made no earlier than the 1660s, that still leaves a very wide time span.

Erlend de Groot, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

T.F. de Rosset, ‘Obrazy z Wiśniowca w kolekcji Andrzeja Mniszcha’, Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici 25 (1994), pp. 141-68; E. Gemar-Koeltzsch, Holländische Stillebenmaler im 17. Jahrhundert, II, Lingen 1995, p. 93, no. 28/9; Hermens et al. in A. Wallert (ed.), Still Lifes: Technique and Style: The Examination of Paintings from the Rijksmuseum, Zwolle 1999, pp. 73-75

Collection catalogues

1960, pp. 39-40, no. 505 A2; 1976, p. 115, no. A 3828

Citation

Erlend de Groot, 2022, 'Abraham van Beyeren, Still Life, c. 1660 - 1690', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6027

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