Still Life

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

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

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.

…; ? 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;¹¹I. Németh, ‘Still Lifes by Abraham van Beijeren in the Former Collection of Marcell Nemes’, in O. Radványi, J. Tátrai and A. Varga (eds.), Geest en gratie: Essays Presented to Ildikó Ember on her Seventieth Birthday, Budapest 2012, pp. 40-43, esp. pp. 41, 43, note 18. from whom purchased by Marczell de Nemes (1866-1930), Munich and Budapest, 1912;²²According to the catalogue for the sale, Marczell de Nemes, Paris (F. Lair-Dubreuil et al.), 17 June 1913, the painting formed part of the travelling exhibition of Marczell de Nemes’s collection in Düsseldorf in 1912. As it was not yet being shown in similar exhibitions in Budapest and Munich in 1911 and 1912, De Nemes probably acquired it at a later moment in 1912 (see H. von Tschudi, Katalog der aus der Sammlung des Kgl. Rates Marczell von Nemes-Budapest ausgestellten Gemälde: Kgl. Alte Pinakothek München, Munich 1911). his sale, Paris (F. Lair-Dubreuil et al.), 17 June 1913, no. 45, fr. 9,200;³³Copy RKD.…; 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;⁴⁴Note RMA.…; 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

ObjectNumber: SK-A-3828

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,⁹⁹SK-A-3944. fairly expensive pigments were used, such as red lakes and vermilion for the tablecloth and realgar for the orange.¹⁰¹⁰See Technical notes; Hermens et al. in A. Wallert (ed.), Still Lifes: Technique and Style: The Examination of Paintings from the Rijksmuseum, Zwolle 1999, p. 75. 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 1951.¹¹¹¹See Technical notes.

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.¹²¹²Heinz Family Collection, Washington; illustrated in A.K. Wheelock Jr (ed.), Still Lifes of the Golden Age: Northern European Paintings from the Heinz Family Collection, Washington (National Gallery of Art) 1989, p. 51. It is signed and dated ‘AB 165(?)’. 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 1667.¹³¹³Los Angeles County Museum of Art; illustrated in S. Slive, Dutch Painting 1600-1800, New Haven/London 1995, p. 286. 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,¹⁴¹⁴As suggested by Hermens et al. in A. Wallert (ed.), Still Lifes: Technique and Style: The Examination of Paintings from the Rijksmuseum, Zwolle 1999, p. 75. which may have been due to his improved financial situation in those years.¹⁵¹⁵See H.E. Van Gelder, W.C. Heda, A. van Beyeren, W. Kalf, Amsterdam 1941, p. 25. According to Segal, oranges only began appearing in his repertoire after 1659, but we have too few dated paintings to confirm this.¹⁶¹⁶S. Segal, A Prosperous Past: The Sumptuous Still Life in the Netherlands, exh. cat. Delft (Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof)/Cambridge (Fogg Art Museum)/Fort Worth (Kimbell Art Museum) 1988-89, p. 176. 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.¹⁷¹⁷An obscure exception is a still life with dead birds, supposedly by Van Beyeren and dated 1675, which was in the possession of the Munich art dealer Drey in 1916; photo RKD. 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

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

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

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