Still Life

c. 1660

Willem Kalf

Artist, Dutch, 1619 - 1693

A blue and white porcelain bowl, fruit, wine glasses, and a woven rug are gathered on a tabletop in front of a black background in this vertical still life painting. Light strongly illuminates the objects, creating a stark contrast to the dark background. At the center of the composition, the porcelain bowl is tipped so its wide brim rests on the rug bunched on the tabletop to our left. The rug is painted with a pattern in earthy beige and chocolate brown, denim blue, bronze, and cream white. A piece of roughly textured orange fruit resembling a tiny pumpkin has a stem with a small white blossom growing from its top. The fruit sits in the bowl alongside a vivid yellow lemon that has been partially peeled. The top has been cut from the lemon to form a long strip that curls onto the table, and the pulp glistens in the light. Two peaches sitting in front of the bowl are painted with tones of silvery ivory and burnt orange. The handle of a utensil juts out from between the peaches and lemon peel. Two glasses and a slender carafe are arranged in a row behind the fruit and bowl. The glass to the left has a round bowl over a thick, columnar stem, and the tall, gently flaring glass carafe behind the orange fruit are both half-filled with pale gold liquid. A drinking glass with a wide, shallow, scalloped-edged cup is mostly hidden behind the porcelain bowl, to our right.

Media Options

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Willem Kalf was one of the most celebrated, sought after, and successful still-life painters of the seventeenth century. With its off-center pyramidal composition, this Still Life is a quintessential example of a compositional format that Kalf used in the late 1650s and early 1660s. The artist’s favorite Chinese porcelain fruit bowl, dating from the Wan-Li dynasty, is tipped at an angle to reveal the blue-on-white decorations that play off so well against the oranges, yellows, and reds of the fruit. A craze for Chinese porcelain had developed in the Netherlands after the capture of Portuguese ships carrying a large cargo of Wan-Li porcelain in March 1603 and continued throughout the century.

With their depiction of Oriental carpets, Venetian glass, Seville oranges, agate-handled knives, and above all Chinese porcelain, Kalf’s paintings evoke the far corners of the world. Placing these exotic objects against dark, contrasting backgrounds allowed Kalf to illuminate their forms with accents of light.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 50

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 64.4 x 53.8 cm (25 3/8 x 21 3/16 in.)
    framed: 83.8 x 69.9 cm (33 x 27 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1943.7.8

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Still Life, c. 1660

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Joseph Daniel Böhm [1794-1865], Vienna; possibly (his sale, Alexander Posonyi, Vienna, 4 December 1865, no. 1682).[1] (Cottier & Co., New York); sold 1889 to Mrs. Henry Osborne Havemeyer [née Louisine Waldron Elder, 1855-1929], New York; (sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 10 April 1930, no. 46); Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] Lucius Grisebach, Willem Kalf, 1619-1693, Berlin, 1974, 258, no. 102, suggests that the Still Life might be identified as the Böhm painting auctioned in Vienna on 4 December 1865. The painting in this sale, however, was probably another composition, for it is described in the auction catalogue as having four pomegranates ("vier spanische Granatäpfel").

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 27.

Bibliography

1930

  • "Rush at Auction of Havemeyer Art." New York Times (11 April 1930): 23.

1943

  • Washington Times-Herald (18 July 1943): C-10.

  • Poe, Elisabeth E. "The Gift of 11 Paintings to the National Gallery of Art by Chester Dale." Washington Times-Herald, (18 July 1943): C-10.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 124.

1959

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings Other Than French in the Chester Dale Collection. Washington, 1959 (reprinted 1965): 15, repro.

1960

  • Baird, Thomas P. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art 7. Washington, 1960: 40, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963: 315, repro.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings Other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. Washington, 1965: 15, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 71.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 63, repro.

1974

  • Grisebach, Lucius. Willem Kalf, 1619-1693. Berlin, 1974: 114-115, 122, 130, 258-259, no. 102, repro. 116.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 184-185, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 306, no. 404, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 213, repro.

  • Pelfrey, Robert H., and Mary Hall-Pelfrey. Art and Mass Media. New York, 1985: 99, no. 4.18, repro.

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington and Grand Rapids, 1986: 309.

1988

  • Grimm, Claus. Stilleben: die niederländischen und deutschen Meister. Stuttgart, 1988: 223, repro.

1991

  • Ydema, Onno. Carpets and Their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540-1700. Zutphen, 1991: 161, no. 455.

1993

  • Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney, et al. Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993: 351, no. 336, repro. [not in the exhibition].

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 146-149, color repro. 147.

1996

  • Pelfrey, Robert H. Art and mass media. New York, 1985. Reprint, Dubuque, Iowa, 1996: 96-97, fig. 4.16.

1998

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. A Collector's Cabinet. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998: 35, 66, no. 27.

1999

  • Schmied, Wieland. Harenberg-Museum der Malerei: 525 Meisterwerke aus sieben Jahrhunderten. Dortmund, 1999: 362-363, repro.

  • Brunnenkant, Katja. "Falscher Glanz? Technologische Untersuchung des ‘W. Kalf. 1643’ signierten Prunkstillebens im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Köln und Vergleich mit Werken aus der Pariser Periode Willem Kalfs (ca. 1619-1693)." Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 13, no. 2 (1999): 264-273, fig. 40, 266, repro. of X-radiography.

Wikidata ID

Q20177551

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