Object data
oil on panel
support: height 50.2 cm × width 36.5 cm
outer size: depth 5 cm (support incl. frame)
Abraham van Beyeren
Still Life with Silver-Gilt Glass Holder
c. 1654 - c. 1660
Technical notes
Support The panel consists of two vertically grained oak planks (approx. 7 and 29.5 cm), approx. 0.5 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has regularly spaced saw marks and plane marks.
Preparatory layers The single, thin, off-white ground extends up to the edges of the support. It consists of white and some ochre-coloured pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The composition was built up from the back to the front in one or two layers, leaving reserves for the objects on the table. The transparent parts of the glasses and the vine leaves were added on top of the background. The details were very delicately rendered, but the tablecloth was executed with broad and quite rough brushwork. Many small highlights were skilfully used to suggest form. There is a pentimento in the stem of the glass holder, which was made taller. The bottom part of it was reserved in the background, while the upper part was painted over the background, resulting in a strong colour shift within the object, just above the head of the little Bacchus figure.
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-4952/1-2, 13 March 2008
- technical report: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 20 March 2008
Condition
Good. There are many small discoloured retouchings in the background. The grapes are discoloured. The paint has become more transparent, especially in the silver tray in the foreground and the wine glasses. The grain of the wood shows through as dark, vertical lines in these areas.
Provenance
…; collection Michel, Mainz;1…; the dealer P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1963;2…; purchased by Mrs E.F. Verspyck-Laan, Aerdenhout, 1964;3 donated by her children, R.H.A. Verspyck, Chateauneuf, and Mrs I.A. Uitenhage de Mist-Verspyck, Aerdenhout, to the museum, 2000
Object number: SK-A-4952
Credit line: E.F. Verspyck-Laan Bequest, Aerdenhout
Copyright: Public domain
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 1641.4 At some stage Van Beyeren turned his hand to still lifes. His earliest one bearing the year of execution is from 1651,5 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.6 His last dated picture is a banquet piece of 1667.7 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
This intimate little banquet piece, which has never before been published, is executed in Abraham van Beyeren’s typical manner with rapid brushstrokes and thickly applied highlights. The composition is dominated by the winged wine glass on the right and the silver-gilt glass holder with the figure of Bacchus in the middle, which is very probably a variation of the salt cellar created in 1639 by the Amsterdam silversmith Johannes Lutma.8 The eight-pointed salver in the foreground is terribly misshapen, however, and the peaches lack definition and texture. The overall theme of the painting seems to be a celebration of times of plenty, as every object exudes luxury and wealth. If the closed pocket watch is supposed to be a reminder of the transitory nature of these material goods, it does so very unobtrusively.
According to the dealer’s label on the reverse of the panel there should be remnants of Van Beyeren’s monogram, but recent examination failed to reveal any. His authorship is not doubted, however. Although the thickly applied paint and erratic highlights seem to point towards the later stages of the artist’s career, after 1660, his only dated works with the same eight-pointed salver are from 1654-55. In fact, all of Van Beyeren’s pictures dated in that period show this particular object.9 The pocket watch, on the other hand, does not correspond to those occurring in his still lifes from these years. The remarkable glass holder seems to be unique in Van Beyeren’s oeuvre, but it is found in paintings by his Amsterdam rivals Willem Kalf and Willem van Aelst from around 1655 and 1659 respectively.10
Erlend de Groot, 2022
See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
Citation
Erlend de Groot, 2022, 'Abraham van Beyeren, Still Life with Silver-Gilt Glass Holder, c. 1654 - c. 1660', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.358160
(accessed 13 November 2024 04:41:12).