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Still Life
1647
Pieter
Claesz was one of the foremost still-life painters of his generation. He pioneered
compositions in an earthy palette focused on objects of everyday life. This
arrangement presents a standard seventeenth-century Dutch breakfast of herring
paired with bread, vinegar, and a glass of beer. The matches beside the brazier
of coals provide a way to light the clay pipe. Its glowing bowl emits a wisp of
smoke, an invitation to meditate on life’s brevity. The actual human cost of tobacco
remains unacknowledged: imported by the Dutch West India Company, this crop was
cultivated by enslaved people in the Americas.
- Artist
- Pieter Claesz (Dutch, 1597/1598–1660)
- Title
- Still Life
- Date
- 1647
- Place of Creation
- Netherlands
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 15 5/8 x 22 in. (39.7 x 55.9 cm) Framed: 21 1/16 x 27 9/16 in. (53.499 x 70.009 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Prentis Cobb Hale
- Accession Number
- 1960.25