Still Life with Sweets and Pottery

1627

Juan van der Hamen y León

Artist, Spanish, 1596 - 1631

A basket of fruit, a plate of baked goods, glass jars, round wooden boxes, and terracotta-red and orange vessels are arranged among gray stone ledges set at different heights that together span the width of this horizontal still life painting. Light falls across the objects from the left, and the background is deeply shadowed, nearly black. Near the top left corner, a woven basket sits on the tallest ledge, almost reaching the top of the composition. It contains dark, plum-purple fruits, a golden loaf of bread in a white wrapper, and several translucent, glistening pieces of fruit in shades of brown and gold. Several long, garnet-red, finger-like objects are tucked among the fruit, and a braided white ring is propped in front. A ledge below this one starts in the lower left corner and spans just over half the width of the composition. Three terracotta vessels, a round, wooden box with its lid propped on its side, and a pewter-silver dish loaded with figs and baked sweets are arranged along the plinth, seeming close to us. Two long, fawn-brown, finger-like objects, perhaps more pastries, are tucked between the wooden box and a terracotta bowl. On the pewter dish, some of the pastries are round like doughnuts and sprinkled with white sugar, some curve in S-shapes, and at least one is long and straight. The third ledge extends from the center of the composition off the right edge, and it is situated behind the pewter dish and alongside the ledge with the basket. To the left on that ledge and at the center of the composition, a tall, rust-red vessel has a hollow center, creating a ring with a flaring foot. It has handles on the shoulders near the tall neck and spout. Shell shapes adorn the perimeter of the hollow center. A glass bowl filled with clear liquid and a round, glass jar filled with a red food, perhaps preserves, sit nearby. The jar sits in front of a translucent glass carafe, which is also tucked behind a stack of two round, lidded boxes, the one on top smaller than the one beneath. Another jar filled with cherry-red fruit sits atop the smaller box. The jars are sealed with twists of paper. The artist signed and dated the work as if he had inscribed the front face of the ledge near the lower right, “Juan vanderHamen i Leon fat 1627.”

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 34

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 84.5 x 112.7 cm (33 1/4 x 44 3/8 in.)
    framed: 106 x 136.2 x 7.6 cm (41 3/4 x 53 5/8 x 3 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.75

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Diego de Messía Felípez de Guzmán, Marquès de Leganés, Madrid, 1655.[1] Private collection, Florence, by 1950.[2] (Victor Spark, New York), at least 1952 to 1954.[3] (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich);[4] purchased 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] William B. Jordan, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650 (exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1985: 135), raises the possibility that this painting is identical to one owned by Leganés at his death in 1655. The marquis owned several still lifes by van der Hamen, including one described in his inventory (no. 97) as "otro banquete de la misma mano y tamaño (i.e. 2 baras poco mas o menos de alto y una y media de ancho), con cajas de conserbas, an carastillo de diferentes dulces y brearos" (another banquet of the same hand and size, with boxes of conserves, a basket of varied sweets and drinking cups). As Jordan notes, the dimensions are significantly different from those of 1961.9.75 (84.2 x 112.0 versus c. 167.2 x 135.4). He suggests that a scribe's error may be responsible for the discrepancy. Certainly the vertical dimensions seem excessive for a still life of this type.
[2] Roberto Longhi, "Un momento importante nella storia dell 'Natura Morta,'" Paragone 1 (1950): 34-39, pl. 16.
[3] Recorded as owner in the exhibition catalogue La nature morte de l'antiquité a nos jours, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, April-September 1952, no. 72, and in Allan Gwynne-Jones, Introduction to Still-Life (London, 1954: 66-67, no. 59).
[4] Letter from David Rust to William Jordan, 6 June 1969, in NGA curatorial files.
[5] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2018.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1952

  • La Nature morte de l'antiquité à nos jours, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1952, no. 72, pl. 28.

1985

  • Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1985, no. 17, color pl. 17.

1995

  • Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, The National Gallery, London, 1995, no. 13, repro.

1999

  • El Bodegón Español [De Zurbarán a Picasso], Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1999-2000, no. 12, repro.

2005

  • El Alma de España [The Soul of Spain], The Albuquerque Museum, 2005, no. 21, repro.

2008

  • El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, 2008, no. 63, repro.

2010

  • In the Presence of Things: Four Centuries of European Still Life Painting. Part One: 17th-18th Centuries, Fundaçäo Calouste Gulbenkian, Exhibition Gallery, Lisbon, 2010, no. 28, repro.

Bibliography

1950

  • Longhi, Roberto. "Un momento importante nella storia della `Natura Morta'." Paragone 1 (1950): 34-39, pl. 16.

1954

  • Gwynne-Jones, Allan. Introduction to Still-Life. London, 1954: 66-67, no. 59.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 104, no. 37, repro.

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): color repro. 641, 646.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 126, as Still Life.

1958

  • Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 209, no. 1454.

1959

  • Soria, Martin. "Notas sobre algunos bodegones españoles del siglo XVII." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 32 (1959): 273-280.

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 272, repro., as Still Life.

  • Kubler, George, and Martin Soria. Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions, 1500-1800. Baltimore, 1959: 235, pl. 122a.

1960

  • Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 22, color repro., as Still Life.

1964

  • Jordan, William B. "Juan van der Hamen y León: A Madrilenian Still-Life Painter." Marysas 12 (1964-1965): 52-59, fig. 16.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 66, as Still Life.

1967

  • Jordan, William B. "Juan van der Hamen y León." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1967: 333, no. 16, fig. 34.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 58, repro., as Still Life.

1970

  • Bergström, Ingvar. Maestros españoles de bodegones y floreros. Madrid, 1970: 36.

1971

  • Angulo Iñiguez, Diego. Pintura española del siglo XVII. Ars Hispaniae, 15. Madrid, 1971: 29.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 89.

1974

  • Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. "Caravaggio y los Caravaggistas en la pintura española." In Colloquio sul tema Caravaggio e i Caravaggeschi. Rome, 1974: 57-85, fig. 12.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 172, repro., as Still Life.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 206-207, fig. 202.

1979

  • Held, Jutta. "Verzicht und Zeremoniell: zu Stilleben von Sánchez Cotán und van der Hamen." Stilleben in Europa. Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. Munster, 1979-1980: 390-394, repro. 391.

1983

  • Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. Pintura española de bodegones y floreros. Exh. cat. Prado, Madrid, 1983: 42, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 247, no. 311, color repro., as Still Life.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 198, repro., as Still Life

1990

  • Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 84-87, color repro. 85.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 83, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: v, 152-153, 166-167, no. 127, color repros.

2006

  • Cherry, Peter. Luis Meléndez: Still-Life Painter. Madrid, 2006: 95, 96, fig. 78.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Only in America: One Hundred Paintings in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections. Milan, 2006: 86-87, 236, 239, color fig.

Inscriptions

lower right: Juan vanderHamen i Leon / fat 1627

Wikidata ID

Q20177076

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