Still Life; Bosschaert, Meléndez, and Peale

Still Life with Figs and Bread by Luis
Melendez

Luis Meléndez, Still Life with Figs and Bread, 1760s, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons’ Permanent Fund 2000.6.1

Meléndez also wrote in the letter that he did not have the means to continue his project. Even though his petition was rejected by the king, forty of his paintings entered the royal collection. Luis Meléndez died a pauper in 1780. By 1800, twenty years after his death, his paintings were considered the most beautiful still lifes in Spain.