Still Life with Fruit, Fish, and a Nest

c. 1675

Abraham Mignon

Artist, German, 1640 - 1679

Fruit, flowers, birds, small animals, insects, and fish are piled in and set around a woven basket in woodland setting in this vertical still life painting. The color palette is dominated by rich colors of emerald and pine green, plum purple, butter yellow, and pumpkin orange, with touches of silver and robin’s egg blue. The scene is lit strongly from our left, and the background is swallowed in shadow. The wicker basket with its tall, arched handle has been set before a rough-hewn, stone archway. Birds perch in the tree branches above the basket and on the handle. The fruit in the basket includes green, red, and purple grapes, peaches, plums, oranges, and yellow pears. Tendrils of wheat wind through the fruit and leaves, and around the handle. Green, striped gourds sit to our left next to a cantaloupe at the foot of the basket. Green frogs, a living and a dead lizard, a caterpillar, snail, and insects sit, lie, or move on the dirt ground around the gourds and melon. To our right, about a third of the way up the composition, worms spill out of a wooden box from which hang several fishing lines holding silvery fish. A small, ivory-white butterfly with black markings and a patch of vivid orange on each wing sits on the lid of the box. Above the box of bait, a nest with four cream-white eggs is tucked among the branches of a hibiscus plant with pale blue, flaring blossoms. A mossy, narrow oak tree trunk bearing acorns rises behind the basket, in front of the stone arch, and off the top edge of the painting. A fishing rod and a cylindrical wooden case painted golden yellow with rust-red designs are propped at the back of the basket. Dark silhouettes of cattails, rocks, and frogs are shown around a pool of water in the lower left corner.

Media Options

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The forest backdrop in this work—so dark that it nearly conceals a stone archway—emphasizes Abraham Mignon’s expressive use of light, which imparts a richness to his colors and forms. The fishing rod, bait box, and bundle of freshly caught fish next to the wicker basket overflowing with fruit and vegetables all evoke the bounty of the water and the land. The assembled objects furthermore form an allegory on the cycles of life. The eggs in the bird’s nest presage birth; the open blossoms and ripe fruits suggest maturity; and the gnarled tree stump denotes old age. Ultimately, the inevitability of death is conveyed by the ants eating the fish and a dead lizard in the foreground. The wheat stalks and grapes offer salvation by symbolizing Jesus' blessing of bread and wine at the Last Supper.

Mignon’s stunning array of textures certainly validates an early biographer’s observation that the artist was "especially diligent." After training in his native Germany, Mignon moved to Utrecht where he probably worked in the studio of Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606–1684), who resided in Utrecht from 1667 to 1672, before returning to Antwerp. Mignon consequently adopted De Heem's "Flemish" taste for rich color and complex design.


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mr. and Mrs. H. John Heinz III

  • Dimensions

    overall: 94 x 73.5 cm (37 x 28 15/16 in.)
    framed: 117.5 x 98.4 x 5.1 cm (46 1/4 x 38 3/4 x 2 in.)

  • Accession

    1989.23.1

More About this Artwork


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection, England. private collection, Switzerland; (Peter Tillou Works of Art, Litchfield, Connecticut); purchased May 1986 by Mr. and Mrs. H. John Heinz III, Washington, D.C.;[1] gift (partial and promised) 1989 to NGA; gift completed 1992.
[1] Provenance information was provided by Diane Martz, with the Heinz collection, in e-mails to Arthur Wheelock of 7 and 10 September 2012 (in NGA curatorial files). She writes in her first message that in the papers of Ingvar Bergstrom, who catalogued the Heinz collection, "there is a version of a certification for the picture that lists a private English collection as provenance."

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1989

  • Still Lifes of the Golden Age: Northern European Paintings from the Heinz Family Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989, no. 28.

1996

  • Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 74-75, color repro.

1997

  • Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Dutch Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 1997, unnumbered brochure.

2006

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, 2006-2007, unnumbered brochure, fig. 3.

Bibliography

1989

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., and Ingvar Bergström , eds. Still Lifes of the Golden Age: Northern European Paintings from the Heinz Family Collection. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Washington, 1989: no. 28, color repro. 75.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 174-176, color repro. 177.

2006

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. . In Celebration of Jan Davidsz. de Heem’s Still-Life with Grapes. Exhibition brochure. Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, 2006: fig. 3.

2007

  • Kraemer-Noble, Magdalena. Abraham Mignon, 1640-1679: catalogue raisonné. Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte, vol. 44. Petersberg, 2007: 35, 38, 130, 132, 288 n. 12, as a 17th century copy by an unknown artist.

Wikidata ID

Q20177660


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